Plymouth fish auction and Plymouth Trawler Agents who run it have grown since sweeping changes to the port’s fishing harbour twenty years ago as Sutton Harbour came into being.
In the early 1990s there were some sweeping changes, including the installation of lock gates that turned Plymouth into a harbour with a constant depth of water. The old auction was closed and fishing was moved across to the other side as a new, modern auction was built. Plymouth auction is still among the UK’s most modern fish auctions and the only one that incorporates online bidding.
As a result, the auction room is silent and almost deserted as the majority of sales are from bidders who are behind a laptop somewhere, and mostly not in Plymouth.
Dave Pessell, who runs Plymouth Trawler Agents, said that in its last year of operation, the old auction turned over approximately £700,000, while the new auction’s best year to date has been 2014 when it had a £17 million turnover. Last year was £15 million and he expects much the same figure this year.
‘This is underpinned by eight beamers, one trawler and nine or ten twin-riggers, although we have 390 boats who land to us here. Some land regularly, some occasionally, and most of these are smaller boats,’ he said, commenting that the auction also supports a large number of small boats throughout the south-west that send their fish to be sold in Plymouth, many of which land occasionally and others regularly.
He said that while the auction actually loses money on the smaller boats’ sales, it is important to maintain the framework that allows them to sell their fish, as otherwise many smaller ports would be left without access to an auction.
‘Today there were 81 vessels that sold fish at the auction today, making £38,000. Of those, 22 landed less than £100 worth of fish. So for every boat that makes £80, we make £3.20,’ he said.
‘There’s always some moaning about the bigger boats. But the fact is that the larger operators are very supportive of the smaller ones,’ Dave Pessell said.
Much of Plymouth’s fish is trucked in from Padstow, Mevagissey, Newlyn and other South-West fishing ports, and from as far afield as Brighton and South Wales.
‘60% of our fish comes in by road, and that’s worth £5-6 million a year. It’s the electronic auction that is the attraction. That attracts buyers over a wider area than a traditional auction can, and that’s what enables us to punch above our weight. I’m amazed that we are still the only auction like this in the country.’
He said that the electronic auction was installed in 1999, and went to online sales in 2005 – the only auction in the UK that has online sales.
‘We can’t understand why any auction would not want to sell as widely as possible. It’s totally transparent and this is the way to get the best possible price for every box of fish. It gives us a 2-3% edge over a traditional auction, which is a substantial difference.’
