The major bait issues of the future...
With the ever-increasing price of fishmeal, the retail price of boilies is only going to head in one direction – up. So in your mind what’s the ceiling price an angler will pay?
Shaun Harrison
“I’m really not sure what the ceiling price would be but feel we are about there now. We haven’t increased our boilie prices at Quest Baits for six years now so the margins are now incredibly tight as the raw ingredient prices continue to increase all the way across the board each year. We needed to increase them at the start of this recession but felt that wasn’t a very tactful move and three years on we are still in that recession so I am not sure many baits will stand much of an increase even now, despite in reality them being cheaper than they have ever been.
“The problem for us is that we pitch our baits against baits carrying some very cheap ingredients but I refuse to alter our recipes to fit a price bracket. Fortunately I have never relied particularly heavily on fishmeals in our range and currently only have four baits containing fishmeals and three of those four contain absolute minimum amounts. With the severe shortage of quality fishmeals available and the way they are escalating in price, a lot of bait companies out there must be really fretting about this and they will have no alternative other than to dramatically increase the cost of their baits or dilute the quality if they want to keep them the same price. Not good whichever way you look at it.
“I used to feel I had perhaps gone down the wrong line with my continued use of expensive birdfood ingredients rather than the cheaper fishmeal route but have always worked along the lines of what I know works and taking my developments as far as I can rather than starting from scratch with things that have hardly featured in my 30 plus years of bait making. Now
I am beginning to feel rather relieved that I don’t rely on fishmeals and fish oils in our Quest Baits range. The future of quality affordable fishmeals isn’t looking good at all.”
Bill Cottam
“Now there’s a question! The price of fishmeal has certainly been on the up for a number of years now, but to be perfectly honest it is difficult to think of too many ingredients that haven’t substantially increased in price of late. Fishmeal prices are only part of the ongoing problem – and I can see it getting worse to be honest in the future.
“The one saving grace with regard to fishmeal is that – although the price is considerably higher than it used to be – they still remain relatively cheap when compared to many other types of good quality nutritional ingredients. Bait companies who use very high percentages of fishmeals in the make-up of their baits will therefore have their costings and profit margins affected considerably more than a company like my own who have always had a tendency to use fishmeal at – what we believe to be the optimum inclusion – a maximum of about 30% for the overall mix make-up of the bait.
“I assure you, although high-quality fishmeals are not easy to get hold of these days, the price of them is far from being my biggest concern! Looking forward a few years though – unless the state of the world improves dramatically – I suspect the bait buying public will have to get used to paying a little more for good quality bait and the bait companies will have to learn to live with slightly lower profit margins. I think that’s just something we’ve all got to expect and live with. Well, here’s hoping I’ve won the lottery by them…”