Ukrainian seafood producers inventing new methods to maintain demand

With prices for imported raw fish for processing rising, the Ukrainian producers of fish products have found new methods to maintain demand based on fresh approach to product weight, reports www.fishnet-russia.com (www.fishnet.ru) with reference to the Ukrainian media.

So as to prevent consumer resistance to higher product prices, the nation's producers have made the packaging and the product weight smaller with the prices visually decreased.

According to director of Vinnitsa-based company BRIZ-T, previously the smallest packaging weighed 200 grams and starting from January 2009 the company started to pack the product into 100-gram vacuum packs with the product's retail price decreased to 5 hryvnias (approximately equal to 6.4 USD). Smaller packaging does not mean that the fish supply has grown smaller, but it is indicative of the producers' inclination to compromises.

Mackerel has also been packed into smaller portions. While earlier the fish was packed in HGT form, now it is halved or even quartered. Along with the above, the producers have started to make smaller slices of delicatessen fish.

Beginning from the current year 2009 fish products have appreciated nearly two times. The Ukrainian importers have suspended purchases of expensive fish. For instance, they have stopped importing halibut to Vinnitsa. The choice of frozen fish has considerably decreased.