Crab Cabin is struggling to get its claws on chancre

Usually its most popular product, the independent business in St Sampson’s was down to its last two boxes of picked chancre this week and had been out of stock intermittently for the past three weeks.

Co-owner Tony Jose Canha said it had been struggling to source chancre for around eight months, but had never before sold out of the picked and whole crab in the 20 years the cabin had been open.

‘The suppliers are all taking their crab to France. We have 14 local suppliers, they all say they are catching less anyway as the weather has been bad.

‘This is the big place to get crab on the island, customers keep asking why we have run out,’ he said.

The shop has remained open as usual selling seasonal spider crabs, which are sweeter, although harder to pick, as well as lobster and other shellfish.

At the beginning of this month the company had to put the price of chancre crab, when it is available, up from £3.75 per quarter pound to £4 in line with increased costs levied on fishermen.

One such increase in expenses can be attributed to the cost of bait. Gurnard, for example, has been used as crab and lobster bait traditionally, but now sells for around £13 per kilo for human consumption.

One fisherman, who did not want to be named, said there were several reasons behind the shortage in chancre, despite it being a generally year-round catch.

‘Admittedly fishing hasn’t been very good because of a drop in water temperature and everything’s gone up in price,’ he said.

‘When I started fishing diesel was 12p a litre and it is now at least 50p, the cost of pots has gone up from £20 to £100 each. You’ve got to be able to get more for your fish to keep fishing where you are, it’s not like we are making more money overall.’

Fishermen are reportedly taking 70% of their catch themselves in larger boats to the auction market in Cherbourg more often during the winter.

In the past central agents in Guernsey would divide the catch and transport part of it to France on behalf of fishermen with smaller boats. Each fisherman is now getting a ‘considerably’ bigger price selling direct.

‘French people would rather have a piece of fish when they go out than a piece of meat, here people prefer meat,’ said the fisherman.

‘If the overseas markets get poor, the trade will return here, but the market in France has only been getting bigger since November – they’ve been exporting a lot of the fish to China as well.

‘Brexit has also been good for fishing, because the pound is weak they are selling in euros and exchanging to pounds,’ he said.

Jason Hamon, the owner of Surf ‘n’ Turf, said although he had not run out of chancre his prices have increased to what he saw to be a fair level.

‘Guernsey is a bit behind the times with prices. It was always cheaper to buy crab and lobster here, I don’t think it’s an unfair hike. The French tend to pay a bit more for their food than we do, it’s just business,’ he said.

A spokesman for States Sea Fisheries said it does not hold definitive records of the number of fishermen who land their catch on the Continent.

‘However, there are 28-30 export licences on issue to different Bailiwick fishermen and of these we know that 12-15 vessels regularly land into France, with others less frequently,’ he said.

‘This pattern has remained similar for the past five years, with some seasonal variation depending on fish abundance and prices available locally and at other markets, principally in the UK.’