Fishmongers spoilt for choice

The catch awaits inspection. Picture / Dean Purcell

Looking like a cross between the Starship Enterprise and a television game show, the Auckland Fish Market had brought local seafood trading into the 21st century.

Manager Nigel Thomas said the fish market, which opened last year in Freeman's Bay, has created a level playing field for buyers, changed how the industry works and improved the choice of fish in shops.

Thomas said the old supplier-to-buyer relationship-based system helped large established buyers dominate fish supplies, penalised new and smaller players and reduced the choice of fish reaching local consumers.

"There was no mechanism to give you an opportunity to buy the fish, he said. "So often during the winter they [the smaller buyers] would be told 'sorry there's no fish' despite the fact there was fish sitting there available and then one of the larger buyers would come down and pick up that fish later in the day because they had the relationship."

The market auction room has become the mechanism by which all buyers get a fair crack of the whip.

At 5.30am, buyers view the morning's catch in a refrigerated hall before the auction at 6am.

At the so-called Dutch auction, buyers sit at desks in front of a large clock which shows the bidding price for each item.

The price starts high and falls quickly like a stopwatch counting backwards.

Buyers press a key on a panel built into their desks to stop the clock and make a winning bid.

The clock is then returned to a higher price and the process starts again until all the catch is sold. A maximum quantity bid per clock-stop ensures everyone has an opportunity to buy some of the 40 species of fish sold every day.

An automated payment and barcode scanning collection system makes sure they get exactly what they bid for.

The bargain hunter needs nerves of steel with only seconds to play with and a missed opportunity early on could see them pay a higher price later as stocks reduce.

"I think that's the key thing - it's a level playing field. It's fair and transparent now. Everyone has the same access to the seafood."

Thomas said buyers soon got to grips with the new technology.

"It's a major change for the industry and it's got a long way to go to be cemented but [it's] one the industry, on the most part, has picked up and run with."

Wally Marsic, a Glen Innes fishmonger for 40 years, said the market saved him time and effort.

Previously, he had to visit individual suppliers and even lift boxes of fish straight off the boat.

"It was a lot of hard work in those days but now, if it was like this before, my back wouldn't be buggered," he said.

More than 150 registered buyers, from supermarkets to the local chippie, can attend the auction which sells up to 25 tonnes of seafood every day.

The auction capacity is 84 bidders and although daily attendance is about 50, a computer system enabling real-time bidding via the internet is under trial.

The market was developed by fishing company Sanford, but Thomas said operational independence and more than 80 suppliers from as far as Fiji made it a resource for the whole industry.

He added that the large supplier base combined with a transparent buying process had driven a wider variety of fish into the local market.

"It starts with us educating our buyers here. We have to get these guys to take the punt and buy them so the public can see them."

The public are welcome to watch an auction, as long as they don't mind the early start. Otherwise the market includes wholesale and fresh fish retailers, restaurants and a cookery school.

"They [the retailers] can say, 'hey we're as close as you can get to the boat without getting your feet wet'," O'Donnell said.

And public awareness is important for a fish market he said was a "showcase for the industry".

"There's been this mystique about the fishing industry for some time, people haven't ever seen behind those gates at the wharf."

When I called for a taxi, the controller, with more knowledge of Auckland's streets than most, said excitedly she wanted to visit the market but wasn't sure where to find it - encapsulating O'Donnell's battle for recognition.

"As soon as they find us they love it, but we need to tell people how to get here and that's been our challenge. It's just going to take us a little bit of time for that, I think."

Fishy facts

* More than 150 registered buyers can attend the Auckland Fish Market auction
* It sells up to 25 tonnes of seafood every day
* Forty species of fish come from 80 suppliers
* The market says it has improved choice for shoppers