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Thread: Oysters

  1. #1
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    Default Oysters

    Oyster farmers reeling in coronavirus pandemic

    Oyster farmers left with more supply than demand as sales remain sluggish ahead of prime oyster-eating season

    By Jeanette SettembreFOXBusiness

    The oyster industry is in murky water.

    With restaurants serving a limited number of diners and relying primarily on take-out in the age of the coronavirus pandemic, oyster farmers are left with more supply than demand as sales remain sluggish ahead of prime oyster-eating season this fall.

    Before COVID-19, shellfish supplier Copps Island Oysters in Norwalk, Connecticut, was selling more than 50,000 oysters to restaurants and buyers across the country, owner Norm Bloom told FOX Business. Now his weekly sales have plummeted as a result of limited dining.

    “A lot of times we get hit by a storm or something like that, but then when we open up it’s like the world’s hungry. We’ve never been up against something like this," Bloom said. "I don’t know what the fall or winter is going to bring. We’re sitting with a lot of oysters.”

    Hundreds of oyster farmers like Bloom are in the same boat. Growing oysters is time-sensitive, and if they’re kept growing in their cages for too long they’ll get too big to sell.

    With fewer restaurants buying oysters as a result of less foot traffic, oyster farmers are left with shellfish surplus. (iStock).
    "What's going to hurt the oyster farmers is the size. When they get too big, nobody wants them -- you have a window because the water is so warm they’re growing so quickly," said Logan Clarke, founder of The Lobster Trap, a Cape Cod, Massachusetts-based wholesale seafood distributor.

    Now, oystermen like Bloom are left with excessive amounts of the mollusks with a limited shelf life. He says he's selling them directly to consumers to avoid letting them go to waste.

    We’ve never been up against something like this.

    “When the virus hit, we couldn’t stop farming. You have to keep moving the product otherwise it smothers,” Bloom said.

    The wholesale price hasn’t dropped, with oysters around 60 cents each, Bloom noted. But even when restaurants are able to reopen, many of them will be ordering a fraction of what their original menus called for. New York City’s Grand Central Oyster Bar inside Grand Central Terminal has been closed since March with indoor dining suspended indefinitely. During normal times, the iconic seafood restaurant was selling up to 5,000 oysters on the half shell per day, not including cooked oysters.

    Now, chefs at the Midtown Manhattan restaurant have shortened the menu anticipating when they’ll be able to get shucking again. But instead of offering guests more than two dozen varieties of bivalves like their menu had before the pandemic hit, there’ll only be five options -- two West Coast and three East Coast oysters -- executive chef Sandy Ingber said.

    “I’m constantly being contacted by my oyster people wanting to know when they can send oysters again, but I have to, unfortunately, tell them, ‘Sorry, we’re closed.’ And when we do reopen, we’re going to be reopening at 50 percent capacity,” Ingber said.

    https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyl...virus-pandemic

  2. #2
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    ED at record highs
    “If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
    -Samuel Adams

  3. #3
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    Maybe a bushel of oysters won't cost $100 in Columbia anymore.
    "Freedom Isn't Free"
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dook View Post
    Go tigers!

  4. #4
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    If they can't sell them, they should use the rejects to seed new or old dilapidated beds.

  5. #5
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    Who the fuck eats oysters in warm months? This is not “prime oyster eating season”.

  6. #6
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    You R correct

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    I see 2 markets for oyster sellers. The commercial and the public. The commercial side will see lower sales due to restaurant closures and limited capacity. The public side will see higher sales because people aren’t going out to eat much and staying home and cooking themselves. I’ve had my parents and in-laws over for supper more than ever since the virus came about. We’ve been having fish fries, shrimp boils, steak nights, etc. We gonna fo sho be steaming some oysters this winter!

  8. #8
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    Fried oysters are good whenever you can get them.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by turbo View Post
    Maybe a bushel of oysters won't cost $100 in Columbia anymore.
    I bet oyster plates in restaurants will go down in price. Because people are staying home and cooking at home, I bet oyster prices gonna sky rocket due to public demand! You are probably gonna have to call and reserve you bag before the order arrives. I bet they won’t be able to keep them in stock.
    Last edited by Rabbitman09; 07-30-2020 at 09:36 AM.

  10. #10
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    Maybe I won’t have to dodge the traps that go floating everywhere on every big tide anymore. Never been a fan of creeks being leased out for that.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Rabbitman09 View Post
    Who the fuck eats oysters in warm months? This is not “prime oyster eating season”.
    The article said "ahead" of prime eating season...

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Luvin' Labs View Post
    The article said "ahead" of prime eating season...
    I imagine him wondering why people look at him like he has a 3rd eye when he speaks...

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by swampknob View Post
    Maybe I won’t have to dodge the traps that go floating everywhere on every big tide anymore. Never been a fan of creeks being leased out for that.
    Are you confusing crabbers with oystermen? They don't use traps to catch oysters.

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  15. #15
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    I thought those were oyster farming substrate structures, not traps. I dont know for sure though.

  16. #16
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    @ JAB

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    I have been wondering how they get away with being unlit. Seem to be impeding navigation
    cut\'em

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    Quote Originally Posted by swampknob View Post
    I used to have some fantastic hunts right there!
    Quote Originally Posted by Glenn View Post
    I'll shoot over a kids head in a blind or long gun one on a turkey in a heart beat. You want to kill stuff around me you gonna earn it.

  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by swampknob View Post
    Cages
    Quote Originally Posted by walt4dun View Post
    Monsters... Be damned if I'd ever be taken alive by the likes of faggot musslims.
    Quote Originally Posted by 2thDoc View Post
    I am an equal opportunity hater.

  20. #20
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    And I just shucked a few dozen LowCo's. I may have had a couple few. They were pretty full and Briny.
    Quote Originally Posted by walt4dun View Post
    Monsters... Be damned if I'd ever be taken alive by the likes of faggot musslims.
    Quote Originally Posted by 2thDoc View Post
    I am an equal opportunity hater.

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