Fresh anchovy:professional buying guide, season, size grades, fish auctions and prices

01

Buying sheet

Minimum size: Regulation (EU) 2019/1241, Annexes V, VI, VII and IX. Size grades: Regulation (EC) No 2406/96, Annex II. Quotas: Regulation (EU) 2026/249. Yield: FAO, Technical Paper No 309 (1989), values common to all anchovies. Shares calculated by the editorial team from the sales declared at French fish auctions in 2024 (FranceAgriMer, workbook published on 2 July 2026). These figures only cover anchovy sold at auction.

02

Fresh, salted or marinated anchovy: what are we talking about?

Fresh anchovy is the whole, raw fish, sold on ice: the one found at the auction and on fresh fish price lists. Salted anchovies, fillets in oil and canned anchovies are processed products, bought elsewhere and at other prices. Marinated fillets, which you prepare yourself from fresh anchovies, do fall within this page, with a health rule to know (see below). The price per kilo of an auction anchovy therefore has nothing to do with that of a jar of salted anchovies.

03

When to buy fresh anchovy?

When there is some, which varies a great deal. In 2024, French fish auctions sold 124 t of anchovy in January and 69 t in February, twenty tonnes or less a month from March to August, with no sales in May and June, then 222 t in September and 81 t in December. This rhythm is not a stable season: in 2025, the auctions sold more than twice as much, mostly in June and July, and above all at La Turballe. It also depends a great deal on the ports: in 2024, more than half of the volumes went through Port-la-Nouvelle, on the Mediterranean.

04

How is Bay of Biscay anchovy managed?

The Biscay stock is fished both by Spanish vessels, seiners, and by French vessels, pelagic trawlers working in pairs and small inshore seiners from southern Brittany and the French Basque Country (Ifremer). It is managed by a total allowable catch split 90% for Spain and 10% for France: in 2026, 33,000 t, of which 3,300 t for France.

This stock has already been closed. According to Ifremer, catches reached 80,000 t in the 1960s, then about 40,000 t a year in the 1990s, half of them French; after several years of very low recruitment from 2002, ICES recommended stopping the fishery in May 2005, and the EU Council of Ministers closed the fishery in July 2005, a measure renewed every year afterwards. In 2010, the Council again set a total allowable catch: 7,000 t for the year, then 15,600 t for the July 2010 to June 2011 season.

05

Which size grade to choose?

Anchovy size grades are read in grams or in number of fish per kilo, like the "moule" (count per kilo) of sardine.

Categories: Regulation (EC) No 2406/96, Annex II. Uses: kitchen guidelines, to adapt to the menu.

In the Atlantic, the 12 cm minimum size is also expressed as a count: 90 anchovies per kilo. An Atlantic batch announced well above 90 pieces per kilo only passes within the 10% tolerance; in the Mediterranean, the minimum size is lower (9 cm). Weigh a few fish on receipt: the number of pieces per kilo changes the cost of the portion.

06

How to judge the freshness of an anchovy?

Shiny skin, dark blue-green back, silvery sides; bulging, clear eye; stiff body; firm, intact belly. Anchovy is a fragile fish: scales and skin are quickly damaged, and a soft or burst belly marks a tired fish. A strong smell, flesh that comes away from the bone by itself: the batch should be refused. These are trade clues, to be checked against the date and time of landing.

07

Which pitfalls to avoid?

• Histamine. Anchovy belongs to the fish families (Engraulidae, like the Clupeidae of sardine) for which the EU regulation sets histamine limits: poorly chilled, it produces histamine, and cooking does not destroy it. Check the temperature on receipt.
• Raw and marinated. An anchovy served raw or marinated must have been frozen for at least 24 hours at -20 °C (or 15 hours at -35 °C) against the risk of anisakis, except for the exemptions provided for by the regulation.
• Mixed sizes. For even deep-frying or fillets of the same size, ask for a graded batch.
• Product confusion. An "anchovy" price without further detail can mean fresh, salted or marinated: check that it really is fresh whole fish, by the kilo.

08

What to replace fresh anchovy with?

09

What makes the price of anchovy move?

Year 2024, all French fish auctions: average first-sale price at the auction hall (FranceAgriMer, sales declared at fish auctions, workbook published on 2 July 2026). Spread between auctions: among those handling at least 5% of anchovy volumes. The auction price is not the price paid to the fish merchant: processing, transport and margin are added to it.

With so little volume, monthly anchovy prices are fragile and should be read with caution. In 2024, the two best-supplied months were among the cheapest: about €1.10/kg in September (222 t) and €1.20/kg in January (124 t). The small spring months sold at higher prices, about €2.10/kg in March and €1.70/kg in April for less than 20 t each, like December (about €2.00/kg for 81 t). July is the exception: only 14 t, at the lowest price of the year (about €0.80/kg), a sign that at these volumes a single batch is enough to set the month's average. The spread between Saint-Guénolé and Port-la-Nouvelle sets two basins against each other, southern Brittany and the Mediterranean, and batches of a different nature: it does not measure the price of the same fish from one port to another.

• Landings: when anchovy arrives in quantity, the price falls; in the small months it rises, but remains very irregular.
• Size and grading: a large anchovy, graded for the fresh market, does not fetch the price of a loose batch.
• Freshness: on such a fragile fish, the time between landing and delivery weighs directly on its value.
• The state of the stock: Bay of Biscay anchovy lives only a few years and its abundance depends on recruitment; supply, and therefore price, can change sharply from one year to the next.
• The cost of the chain: on a fish sold at around €1 to €2/kg at auction, ice, grading, packing and transport weigh heavily, in proportion, in the delivered price.