Skip to content
LiveCriée
FR

Species

Turbot:professional buying guide, season, size grades, wild or farmed

Turbot for the trade: season, usual size grades, French fish auctions (Roscoff first), wild or farmed, fillet and steak yield, substitutes.

Updated 7 min readLiveCriée editorial team

Contents
  1. Buying sheet
  2. Which size grade for which cut?
  3. Wild or farmed: how to tell them apart?
  4. How to judge the freshness of a turbot?
  5. What pitfalls to avoid?
  6. What to replace turbot with?
  7. What makes the price of turbot move?
  8. Frequently asked questions

Turbot (Scophthalmus maximus, formerly Psetta maxima) is a large scaleless flatfish, with a dark side covered in small bony tubercles, caught in the North-East Atlantic and the Mediterranean and widely farmed; it is one of the most expensive fish per kilo at French fish auctions, where it weighed only 294 tonnes in 2024. On price lists, it is sold whole, by weight, wild or farmed.

Buying sheet

Turbot
Scientific nameScophthalmus maximus (synonym Psetta maxima)
Peak season (wild)April to July, peak in May and June. In 2024, May saw five to six times more turbot at auction than January or December
Closed seasonNo regulatory closure. Spawning from May to July in the Atlantic, from February to April in the Mediterranean (FAO)
Minimum sizeNo EU minimum size in the Atlantic and the English Channel; 30 cm for French vessels (French order of 28 January 2013)
Size gradesNo EU marketing size grade for turbot. On price lists, for example (trade practice, not a standard): chicken turbot (turbotin, under 1 kg), 1 to 2 kg, 2 to 3 kg, 3 to 4 kg, 4 to 6 kg, 6 kg and over. Farmed turbot sold at 0.7 to 2 kg (FAO)
Main French fish auctions (2024)294 t sold at auction. Roscoff 28%, Les Sables-d'Olonne 6%, Le Guilvinec 6%, Saint-Quay-Portrieux 5%, Brest 5%, Erquy 5%
OriginsWild: North-East Atlantic (FAO area 27: western English Channel, Celtic Sea, North Sea, Bay of Biscay), Mediterranean and Black Sea (FAO area 37). Farmed: Spain, the leading European producer, and Portugal; also farmed in China (FAO)
Fishing methodsBottom trawl, beam trawl, net (trammel net, large-mesh gillnet)
Yield50% as fillets (750 g turbot); 60% as bone-in steaks and 34% as trimmed suprêmes (3 to 4 kg turbot) (Seafish)
StorageWhole, gutted, flat under melting ice (0 to 2 °C)

National rhythm of auction sales (FranceAgriMer, 2024); it varies from one port to another. Shares calculated by the editorial team from the sales declared at French fish auctions in 2024 (FranceAgriMer).

Which size grade for which cut?

Turbot is the textbook case of the rule "the size grade follows the plate":

Cut servedRecommended size gradeIndicative yield
Whole chicken turbot, for one or twounder 1 kgfillets: about 50%
Fillets1 to 2 kgfillets: about 50%
Bone-in tronçons or steaks3 kg and oversteaks: about 60%
Trimmed suprêmes, skinless and boneless3 kg and oversuprêmes: about 34%

Seafish yields, to be measured on your own fish.

A large turbot costs more per kilo, but gives thick, regular steaks. The head and frame weigh a lot: they make one of the best fish stocks, to be counted in the recipe costing sheet.

Wild or farmed: how to tell them apart?

  • The label: "caught" or "farmed" is mandatory, with the area or the country of farming.
  • Shape and size: farming delivers regular fish, sold at 0.7 to 2 kg according to the FAO, available all year round. A batch of perfectly identical "wild" turbot in midwinter should raise the question.
  • The season: in December, wild turbot is scarce, and it is the month when it sells at its highest auction price. Farmed turbot is available all year round.

How to judge the freshness of a turbot?

Shiny dark side, clear-cut tubercles, clear slime; white side without redness; bright red gills; thick, firm flesh; a smell of the sea.

What pitfalls to avoid?

  • Confusing turbot and brill. Brill (Scophthalmus rhombus), its close cousin, has scales and no tubercles, and costs less. It is a good substitute, not an equivalent to be invoiced at the price of turbot.
  • Comparing prices per kilo across different size grades. A chicken turbot and a 4 kg turbot do not yield the same.
  • Imported "turbot". In Canada, Greenland halibut (Reinhardtius hippoglossoides) is also called "turbot". In France, it is sold as "flétan noir" or "flétan du Groenland" (DGCCRF): on an import document, check the scientific name.

What to replace turbot with?

UseSubstitute
Fillets, tronçonsBrill (same yield, 50% as fillets and 60% as steaks)
Thick steaks, all year roundFarmed turbot, halibut
Thin fillets, prime flatfishLarge-size Dover sole, John Dory

What makes the price of turbot move?

Average first-sale price at auction, France, 2024Wild turbot
Yearly averageabout €24.30/kg
Cheapest monthMay: about €18.50/kg
Most expensive monthDecember: about €40/kg
Spread between auctionsfrom €22.00/kg (Brest) to €27.90/kg (Les Sables-d'Olonne)

Year 2024, all French fish auctions: average first-sale price at the auction hall of turbot caught by French vessels (FranceAgriMer, Données de ventes déclarées en halles à marée en 2024, June 2025 edition; turbot does not appear in the workbook published in 2026). Monthly prices read by the editorial team from the chart in the report, to within about €0.50/kg. Spread between auctions: among those handling at least 5% of turbot volumes. The auction price is not the price paid to the fish merchant: processing, transport and margin are added to it.

Wild turbot moves against its landings. In May 2024, the busiest month (nearly 60 t sold at auction), it sold at around €18.50/kg; in December, with about ten tonnes, at around €40/kg, more than double, at holiday time. February, August and September, months of small landings, also sold at around €30/kg. Between auctions, the spread of about €6/kg concerns small volumes, and Roscoff, more than a quarter of sales, is among the cheapest: the report does not say whether the spread comes from size grade or outlets.

Wholesale prices, 2024Yearly average
Wild turbot from France, 2 to 3 kg, Rungisabout €24.60/kg
Imported wild turbot, 2 to 3 kg, Rungisabout €22.00/kg
Farmed turbot from Spain, Mercamadridabout €13.20/kg

Rungis: average of the monthly wholesaler quotations at the Rungis wholesale market (MIN), excluding tax, calculated by the editorial team (RNM, FranceAgriMer); the RNM published no quotation for farmed turbot at Rungis in 2024. These wholesale prices cover a specific size grade: they cannot be compared with the average auction price, all size grades combined. Mercamadrid: wholesale price of Spanish farmed turbot (EUMOFA, European Market Observatory for Fisheries and Aquaculture Products). Two different wholesale markets: it is the order of magnitude that counts.

Farmed turbot does not go through the fish auction. At wholesale level, Spanish farmed turbot was worth in 2024 in Madrid roughly half the price of wild turbot from France at Rungis. At the end of the year, it is wild turbot that soars: at Rungis, French turbot of 2 to 3 kg went from about €21/kg in November to about €34/kg in December.

  • The season: in 2024, the average auction price more than doubled between May and December. The holidays fall when landings are at their lowest.
  • The size grade: large fish cost more per kilo.
  • The origin: wild costs clearly more than farmed, roughly double at wholesale level in 2024.
  • The weather and quantities: with less than 300 tonnes a year at auction, a few days without landings are enough to push the price up.

Frequently asked questions

When is turbot in season?

Wild turbot arrives mainly from April to July, with a peak in May and June, the period when it is also cheapest. In winter, it is scarce and expensive. Farmed turbot is available all year round.

What is the difference between turbot and brill?

They are two closely related species. Turbot has no scales but tubercles on its dark side, and it is rounder; brill has scales, a more oval shape, and costs less. Their fillet yields are comparable.

What is the yield of turbot?

According to Seafish: about 50% as fillets for a 750 g turbot, 60% as bone-in steaks and 34% as trimmed suprêmes for a 3 to 4 kg turbot.

What is the price of turbot?

In 2024, wild turbot sold for about €24.30/kg on average at first sale in French fish auctions, from about €18.50/kg in May to about €40/kg in December (FranceAgriMer). Farmed turbot, which does not go through the fish auction, was worth about €13.20/kg at wholesale level in Madrid for Spanish farmed fish (EUMOFA). The price paid to the fish merchant adds processing, transport and margin.

Where is the turbot sold in France caught?

At auction, first in Brittany: Roscoff alone accounts for more than a quarter of national sales. Farmed turbot comes mainly from Spain, the leading European producer according to the FAO, and from Portugal.

Sources

Read next