Fish consumption drops as salmon reaches 25 euros per kg

Fish consumption collapses: luxury prices and empty kitchens

As one participant notes, fresh fish is available for less than five euros per kilo. Sardines, banana, cod, and some wild hake on offer. And still, consumption falls. This is the contradiction that has persisted since the story broke: cheap fish is not scarce; what is missing is for that cheapness to stop being a counter exception and for the rest not to be priced like a menu. The kilo of farmed salmon at 25 euros competes poorly against steaks. The cut tuna at 10 euros at Hipercor is hardly a bargain. And the narrative blaming consumers for not knowing how to fry an egg is losing buyers.

Why is fish consumption falling in Spain?

Price is the argument that wins almost every hand. Some place fish already above the cheap range between 10 and 25 euros per kilo, depending on quality and season, and at those levels the comparison with meat does not hold: for that money, you can get an entrecôte or ribs. Sea bream and trout from fish farms appear as a reasonable refuge, though they carry the stigma of fish farm trash. And frozen or canned fish, which are cheaper per portion, have the added advantage of being storable and portioned without haste.

To this must be added fiscal policy. The large tuna industry association repeats it: in Spain, fish is subject to a 10% VAT, while Germany or France apply a reduced rate. The request to lower or eliminate it has been on the table for years.

Do young people really not know how to prepare it?

Half of Spain has signed up to the cultural diagnosis. It is argued that the transmission chain has broken: no one takes children to the market, no one teaches them to order boneless sliced hake, no one turns cooking into a subject. The loss of typical dishes and know-how is described as vanishing intangible heritage.

The portrait circulating in the most extreme cases is of youths aged 13 to 18 unable to make a bed, fry an egg, or heat something in the microwave without overcooking or undercooking. It sounds like a caricature, but those telling it claim to have seen it in other homes.

On the other side is the strongest counterargument: making grilled mackerel fillets does not require a doctorate. Gyms are full of people eating grilled chicken daily, proving that the problem is not technique but price. A minimum wage earner spending 600 or 700 euros just on rent does not buy fish even if they know how to cook it, another participant argues. That young people do not buy Joselito hams does not miccionan they do not know how to slice ham.

The drop in fresh fish began in 2022

The repeated temporal cutoff places the collapse of fresh consumption —meat, fruit, vegetables, and fish— in the summer of 2022. Before, no. After, in freefall with no visible recovery. Part of the analysis points directly to the sanctions on Russia approved from February of that year and their effect on energy and logistics costs; another part dismisses it as a textbook excuse, the latest, alongside changing climate and everything else.

The fact is that fresh fish has become a planned purchase, not a routine. Those who step into a fishmonger’s do so once every two months. And those who watch the price opt for frozen.

Red shrimp and the future of the sector

Alongside the demand problem is the supply issue. The fishing industry warns that fishing in the Mediterranean is on the verge of disappearance and that thousands of families would lose their jobs. The warning has a seasonal wrapper: these could be the last Christmases with Mediterranean red shrimp on the table. Sustainability, profitability, and consumption fall into the same bag.

How fish is bought when it is bought

The most repeated answer is not the fishmonger. It is frozen and canned, for pure and hard convenience. Five cans of sardines at one euro each go further than a kilo of fresh fish that must be cleaned, cooked, and consumed before spoiling. Then there are surplus packs at five euros that some fishmongers place via apps, filling the fridge and emptying the counter of unsold items.

Behind this is a logistics system that runs like clockwork: inshore fish leaves Vigo in the early hours, passes through MercaMadrid, and arrives at the best restaurants in less than 12 hours; fish loaded in Ireland crosses by refrigerated truck and is in Madrid in less than 24. Fresh and well-treated fish exists. What is scarce is who can afford it on any random Tuesday.

With these threads, the question is no longer whether young people know how to turn on an induction hob. It is another: how long will the last neighborhood counter stay open before the only way to eat fish is to open a can?