A dramatic hike in haddock prices is forcing Nova Scotia restaurants to pass on the cost to diners, as reduced quotas and tightened supply drive up the price of the fish throughout Atlantic Canada. 

The Pleasant Street Diner in Dartmouth, N.S., a local favourite for fish and chips, serves about 1,000 pounds (450 kilograms) of fresh haddock per week. But early this month, its supplier increased the price of the historically affordable fish by 40 per cent, or about $5 per pound. 

Overnight, the diner’s weekly haddock expenses went up $5,000.

This marks the largest increase that restaurant co-owners Stephen and Tommy Fatouros have seen in their three decades in the fish business. With haddock dishes making up more than half their menu, the brothers had to increase menu prices by 10 per cent because of the sudden cost hike.

“If we didn’t raise our prices, you know, we’d have to take fish and chips off the menu,” said Stephen.

WATCH | Haddock is in short supply throughout Atlantic Canada:

Can’t find haddock to buy? Here’s why

You may have noticed recently that this Maritime staple has been missing from your favourite seafood vendor. And when stores do have it, it may have a steeper price tag. The CBC’s Giuliana Grillo explains why.

A tightened haddock supply is to blame for the price surge. In April, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans cut haddock fishing quotas in areas off southwestern Nova Scotia, southern New Brunswick and the Gulf of Maine by 57 per cent, citing a decade-long decline in stocks. 

“We don’t want to use an inferior product or even make our orders smaller,” Stephen said. “We always felt that the customer doesn’t mind paying a little extra if the product is the same and the quality is the same.”

The increase also comes as the restaurant grapples with the soaring cost of canola oil, which is necessary for deep-frying fish. Their weekly canola oil bill is now $700 more than it was last year. 

“I hate raising the prices,” Tommy said. “It was a horrible weekend for me and my brother trying to figure out what we’re going to do.”

The Pleasant Street Diner isn’t alone. Rudy and Olive’s Fish & Chips in Bedford, N.S., is facing the same 40 per cent hike in haddock prices, and announced in a July 3 Facebook post that its menu prices were also increasing. 

The dramatic rise in haddock prices is the latest blow for the Atlantic Canada restaurant industry, which has seen skyrocketing costs throughout the supply chain since the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Natasha Chestnut, executive director of the Restaurant Association of Nova Scotia, said restaurateurs have largely absorbed increased fuel, labour, food and processing costs without passing them on to customers, but many are now reaching a breaking point. 

She said 36 per cent of Nova Scotia restaurants are operating at a loss or just breaking even, which is three times more than in 2019. Chestnut expects more restaurants to increase their prices as they run out of ways to stay afloat. 

“If they’re planning on still carrying fresh haddock on their menu, they’re looking at those increases and having to make those really tough decisions,” she said.

In an attempt to keep prices reasonable, the Pleasant Street Diner previously dropped scallops from its menu altogether. Costs for the mollusks also soared this year after the DFO reduced the total allowable catch on Georges Bank by about 48 per cent. 

Since customers already see rising costs on their own grocery bills, Chestnut doesn’t expect many restaurants will receive pushback over increased menu prices.

“Consumers seem to be understanding that they are going to see some of these price increases on the menu,” she said. “For the consumer, what’s really important is that they’re still getting quality, and that they’re still getting service.” 

The Fatouros brothers explained their price increase in a July 6 Facebook post, with online comments and diner customers alike lauding their transparency. 

“Everything is delicious here, so a little increase is OK for the haddock,” Richard Powell, who eats at the diner every two weeks, told CBC News. 

Two days after their announcement, the diner was packed with regulars when Stephen spoke with CBC News. He called the outpouring of support “humbling.”

“We’re trying our best here and our customers have stood by us from the beginning and hopefully they’ll stick by us,” he said. “But there’s a point where you can’t squeeze people that much.”

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