Buyer's guides
Buyer's guides for French fish and seafood
Seasons, sizes and French fish auctions: LiveCriée guides for professional buyers of fresh French seafood.
Updated 2 min readLiveCriée editorial team
LiveCriée guides are written for professional seafood buyers. Each one answers a concrete question of the trade, starting with the one every importer asks first: what is in season in France, and when.
In season in October
- French seafood in season in October: what arrives at auction, what becomes scarce : October at the fish auction: king scallop returns, peak of gilthead sea bream, cuttlefish and red mullet; end of albacore and langoustine. Substitutes, prices.
- Seafood seasonality calendar: French fish, shellfish and crustaceans month by month : 40 French seafood species month by month: peak season, lows, spawning, closures. And why season, quality and price do not coincide.
- All 12 months: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
Buying well
- Comparing suppliers: the method for putting offers on an equal basis : Comparing several suppliers' price lists on an equal basis: species, size grade, presentation, unit, extra costs, freshness of the list. Method and pitfalls.
- Fish and seafood size grades: standards, price lists and prices : Size grades explained: minimum sizes, EU categories and price list grades for sea bass, Dover sole, turbot, monkfish, king scallop, oysters, lobster.
- Fish merchant, wholesaler or fish auction: which channel for your volume and trade : Fish auction, fish merchant or wholesaler: access, free delivery, minimums, lead times, freshness risk, delivered price, decision table by profile and volume.
- Managing fish deliveries well: ordering, receiving, storage, disputes : Ordering at the right time, judging freshness on receipt (Extra, A, B), storing at 0 to 2 °C, settling a dispute: inspection grid and a typical morning.
- Ordering at the best price: organising fresh produce orders without spending the morning on them : Organising fresh produce orders to buy at the best available price: cut-off time, tracked prices, minimum orders, substitutions.
- Recipe costing sheet and food cost of fish: yield, calculation, example : Calculating the food cost of a fish dish: fillet yield by species, step-by-step calculation with a worked example, effect of size grade and purchase price.
- Seafood labels and claims: MSC, Label Rouge, PGI, line-caught, small-scale fishing : MSC, Pêche durable, Label Rouge, PGI, PDO, organic, line, small-scale fishing: who grants them, what they guarantee or not, how to read them on a price list.
- The seafood price list (mercuriale): definition, reading and comparison : The price list (mercuriale) is a fish merchant's list of the day's prices. How to read it line by line and set those of several suppliers side by side.
- Traceability and labelling of fresh fish: what the buyer should demand : Fresh fish: mandatory information (EU 1379/2013), lots and traceability, display at the fish counter and in restaurants, receiving checklist, FAO areas.
Read next
- SpeciesFrench seafood speciesSea bass, sole, king scallop, langoustine… For each species: season, size grades, French fish auctions, fishing methods and substitutes.
- French fishing portsFrench fishing ports and fish auctionsBoulogne-sur-Mer, Brest, Cherbourg, Concarneau: the French fish auctions, their sale times, their species and their fish merchants.
- Sourcing from FranceSourcing wholesale seafood from FranceWholesale seafood from French suppliers for importers: criées, mareyeurs, air freight via Paris CDG, export documents, seasons, comparing price lists.