Focus Mussels - March 1, 2002

The market for mussels is growing steadily, but can New Zealand and PEI producers keep up with demand?

By Steven Hedlund

It’s hard to find an Italian eatery, whether a 200-restaurant chain or an independent bistro, that doesn’t serve mussels as an appetizer or with one of its pasta dishes.

And it’s just as difficult to find a retail outlet that doesn’t stock its display case with $1.99-a-pound mussels.

Few doubt that demand for mussels is increasing steadily and still has room to grow. But many in the industry question whether supply can keep up with demand.

After growing by leaps and bounds over the past several years, New Zealand and Prince Edward Island mussel production, which accounts for the bulk of the U.S. mussel supply, is slowing. As a result, prices of frozen and live mussels should hold steady or rise slightly this year.

Despite the potential price increase, mussels are still a steal. Frozen New Zealand greenshell mussels are bringing $1.60 to $1.65 a pound. Live rope-grown PEI blue mussels are fetching around $1 and should stay at that price for the rest of 2002, now that two of PEI’s largest mussel producers don’t have antidumping tariffs to deal with.

In January, Great Eastern Mussel Farms of Tenants Harbor, Maine, withdrew its antidumping petition against PEI mussel producers, and the U.S. International Trade Commission and Commerce Department subsequently terminated the suit.

In October 2001, Commerce assessed preliminary tariffs on two of the four PEI producers named in the antidumping petition. Confederation Cove received a 4.7 percent dumping margin, and Prince Edward Aqua Farms was hit with a 3.48 percent dumping margin.

Around the same time, the price to producers jumped from 55 cents to 65 cents. That bumped up prices of live mussels delivered to Boston from the 80-cent range to the 90-cent range. They had bottomed out at 70 cents before the antidumping petition was initially filed in March.

“Why spend a lot of time and money when you already got what you wanted?” asks Terence Callery, Great Eastern’s sales manager, referring to his company’s decision to drop the antidumping petition when prices increased in the fall.

PEI producers, however, argue that the increase was due simply to demand outstripping supply.

After soaring from 30.6 million pounds in 1999 to 39.5 million pounds in 2000, PEI mussel production is beginning to level off, they explain. The province, with 1,100 miles of coastline, isn’t big enough for annual production to keep increasing.

“[PEI] is a pretty small place. We’ve reached a point where we can’t [expand] anymore,” says Stephen Stewart, president of Confederation Cove, one of PEI’s largest mussel producers.

Still, through November, U.S. imports of live and frozen Canadian mussels, which totaled 17.3 million pounds, were up 4 percent from the same 11-month period in 2000, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.

That’s partly because Newfoundland mussel production doubled from 2.3 million pounds in 2000 to 4.6 million pounds in 2001, according to the provincial Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture. With more than 10,500 miles of coastline, Newfoundland is plenty large enough for annual production to keep climbing steadily.

However, Newfoundland’s location puts its mussel producers at a cost disadvantage compared to their PEI neighbors, who have a bridge to the mainland and are closer to the Northeast’s urban areas. Therefore, about 40 percent of Newfoundland’s 2001 harvest was frozen; 95 percent of PEI’s yearly harvest is shipped live.

In addition to Newfoundland, Chile has emerged as a reliable source of blue mussels. Imports of frozen Chilean mussels, which neared 700,000 pounds through November, more than doubled 2000’s 11-month total of 315,000 pounds.

Blount Seafood of Warren, R.I., which for a number of years has processed PEI mussels for use in its foodservice products, has in recent years helped develop Chile’s resource by partnering with two processing plants to meet the growing demand for mussels in the United States, says Randy Neal, the company’s director of marketing.

PanaPesca of Cohasset, Mass., has also been importing Chilean product for a few years, and sales of its frozen, vacuum-packed mussels to European and U.S. foodservice operators are “excellent,” says company President Mike Davis.
Great Eastern, which raises approximately 130,000 bushels of blue mussels annually in Maine, is also importing Chilean product to keep up with demand, says Callery.

Demand for New Zealand greenshells has also grown substantially in the last decade. But production slipped from 165 million pounds in 2000 to 141 million pounds in 2001, reports Paul Lupi of the New Zealand Mussel Industry Council.
Meanwhile, U.S. imports of New Zealand greenshells, almost all of which are frozen on the halfshell, were down 17 percent, to 16.7 million pounds through November, from the same 11-month period in 2000, according to NMFS.
New Zealand production won’t pick up anytime soon, either. In November, the government slapped a two-year moratorium on new aquaculture sites to prevent a flood of applications while its legislature implements new laws designed to better manage the country’s burgeoning aquaculture industry.
Consequently, prices to U.S. importers, which have varied from $1.45 to $1.65 for the past 18 months, should hold at $1.60 to $1.65 this year, says Darryl Hamilton, North American export market manager for Talley’s Fisheries in Motueka, New Zealand.

Due to the current supply shortfall and increased demand in the United States and Asia, prices may edge higher than $1.65 a pound, notes Conrad Esser, director of business development for New Zealand Seafoods in Los Angeles.
“Traditional importers are the only ones who can get their hands on container loads; brokers can’t,” he says. “We’ve had to reject orders because we can’t meet demand.”

Esser has also noticed that more New Zealand producers are harvesting small mussels, an indication that production has slowed.

When the moratorium expires next year, “there’ll be a small production increase allowed, but not as big as the industry would like to see,” says Hamilton. “I don’t see prices coming back down.”

On the home front, blue-mussel landings actually increased from 2.2 million pounds in 1999 to 3.3 million pounds in 2000. But over the last 10 years, U.S. landings have declined gradually due to a lack of demand for wild product that isn’t cleaned and graded.

“The market wants a quality product and is willing to pay for it,” says Tom Ahern, national sales manager for American Mussel Harvesters in Narragansett, R.I., which markets domestic and PEI mussels to high-end restaurants and retailers.

Because business is expanding, AMH is building a new 12,000-square-foot holding and distribution facility in Davisville, R.I., scheduled for completion in April.

Taylor Shellfish in Shelton, Wash., which farms a little more than 1 million pounds of Mediterranean mussels annually, is also growing its business.
Demand is as strong as ever, says Tom Bettinger, the company’s director of international sales. Mediterranean mussels are popular
in ethnic markets, particularly Chicago’s Italian population and Florida’s Cuban population, and at California’s white-tablecloth restaurants, he explains.
“The single biggest issue for us is being able to put more rafts in the water,” says Bettinger, referring to the lengthy and political process of permitting and installing new rafts.

Prices of live Mediterranean mussels delivered to West Coast cities should hold at $1.60 to $1.65, now that prices of PEI mussels have increased, says Ian Jefferds, general manager of Penn Cove Shellfish in Whidbey Island, Wash.
“Some foodservice operators are just starting to realize what a deal mussels are for them,” he adds. Many operators, however, have known that for a while.

Menuing mussels

Carrabba’s Italian Grill has had mussels on the menu since its inception 15 years ago. Each of the chain’s 103 restaurants goes through an average of 30 pounds of mussels per day, says Kathleen Packard, the company’s director of purchasing.

The concept, operated by Outback Steakhouse, uses only PEI mussels in its Cozze in Bianco appetizer (mussels steamed in white wine, olive oil, garlic, lemon and basil) and its Linguine Pescatore entrée (linguine in a spicy marinara sauce topped with mussels, scallops and shrimp). Packard says the growth of the casual Italian concept has helped propel mussel sales.

The Olive Garden, with 484 restaurants in the United States and Canada, posted its 29th consecutive quarter of same-restaurant sales growth in the second quarter of fiscal 2002, which ended Nov. 25. And that’s during a recession.

Romano’s Macaroni Grill, another wildly popular Italian concept, with 162 restaurants in 37 states, also menus mussels.

At Plouf, a French seafood bistro in San Francisco’s European Quarter, mussels steal the show. Executive Chef David Spanner features them in eight unique dishes priced at $13 each.

Spanner steams PEI mussels in a variety of ingredients, including roasted garlic and sherry vinegar; shallots, bacon, white wine, parsley and cream; and lime juice, garlic, cilantro, chili and coconut milk. He goes through around 125 pounds of mussels on Saturday, 150 Monday through Wednesday and up to 300 on Thursday and Friday.

Although only about 20 pounds of mussels are sold per day on a slow week at Philadelphia Fish & Co., “it’s something we will always offer the customer,” says co-owner Janet Meeker.

Philadelphia Fish & Co. Executive Chef Amy Coben, who uses domestic and PEI product, tosses mussels, littleneck clams and shrimp with linguine in a spicy grilled pablano coconut broth for $10.50 at lunch and $18 at dinner.

As demand for mussels grows at restaurants, more and more consumers are learning that the mollusk is easy to prepare at home, adds Penn Cove’s Jefferds.

“Anything you can do with clams you can do with mussels,” he says. Annapolis Seafood Market, with three Maryland retail outlets, moves up to 300 pounds of mussels per week at its Annapolis store alone, reports General Manager Jeff Gronde.

Gronde buys his mussels from American Mussel Harvesters and retails them for $1.99 a pound. “They’re inexpensive. They’re a value,” he says.
The consistent price of mussels “makes it a perfect item to put on ad,” concurs Great Eastern’s Callery. “It hits the low end of the price mix, and [retailers] know they can lock in on a price.”

Steven Hedlund can be e-mailed at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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