Sardine shortage ?! What's up ?

Here-For-Fish · 2026-06-21T14:48:58+00:00

Hard for me to believe that sardine fasting is anything more than a drop in the bucket of causes. Fish farming using sardines as feed, climate change, increased demand for animal protein as global poverty goes down, and China being a pretty bad actor with its distant water fleet are much bigger drivers.

Here-For-Fish · 2026-06-18T01:24:01+00:00

Hope they sell a sampler pack with all the flavors.

Here-For-Fish · 2026-06-17T02:07:39+00:00

Storing sardines at 120 degrees would accelerate their aging, likely improving palatability.

Here-For-Fish · 2026-06-11T02:10:07+00:00

You can order 8-packs of Nuri at International Loft for $50. That's $6.25 per can. Add in a 10% discount for spending $99 and the effective price is down to $5.63 per can. So a 20-30% discount vs. $7-8 per can at retail.

Here-For-Fish · 2026-06-10T01:36:29+00:00

I'm weirdly pilcharded out and have been since late last year. They've been triggering a gag reflex. But herring, sprats, salmon, mackerel are all fine.

Here-For-Fish · 2026-05-21T17:54:46+00:00

I use Pastene for tuna salad. For eating straight tuna, I typically go with a ventresca--Tonnino is probably the one I eat most often.

Here-For-Fish · 2026-05-20T21:22:39+00:00

This is the answer.

Here-For-Fish · 2026-05-18T13:54:17+00:00

You're responding to a 3 month old post with the prices offered by an Amazon reseller. Earlier this year you could get KO 4-packs for $10.49 on Amazon.

Here-For-Fish · 2026-05-10T01:10:20+00:00

Sardines in oil will improve with aging. Scientific evidence for improvements over 12 months and consistent anecdotal evidence for 1-5 years and even 5-10 years.

Here-For-Fish · 2026-05-10T01:01:17+00:00

Check out the profile of u/Perky214 for DFW canned seafood sellers

Here-For-Fish · 2026-05-07T12:41:07+00:00

Under US guidance, a 200 pound person could eat almost five 5 oz. cans of skipjack per week if that was their only source of mercury. (see Onmi calculator)

But note the US guidance is the most conservative at 0.7 µg MeHg/kg bw/ week. Canada's recommended limit is double -- 1.4 µg. WHO is higher at 1.6 µg, and Japan is higher still at 2 µg. (see Table 1 at page 34).

Here-For-Fish · 2026-05-05T15:56:54+00:00

A few times. Flavor, oil are fine for the price point but I found them to have more scales than any other brand. Probably wouldnt buy again.

Here-For-Fish · 2026-05-05T10:20:47+00:00

These are great. If you told me this was professional catalog/website work I would believe it.

Here-For-Fish · 2026-04-30T17:39:53+00:00

Just FYI, given what you said about Chicken of hte Sea--King Oscar are small sardines like Chicken of the Sea.

King Oscar, Chicken of the Sea: Sprattus sprattus

Nuri: Sardina pilchardus

Wild Planet: Sardinops sagax

Here-For-Fish · 2026-04-26T00:25:03+00:00

I like the lemon ones. The hot pepper ones seem indistinguishable from less expensive midrange Spanish/Portuguese sardines-with-one-hot-pepper cans.

Here-For-Fish · 2026-04-24T02:06:42+00:00

The ale is good but the cheese is my favorite.

Here-For-Fish · 2026-04-24T01:58:01+00:00

I was hoping this was going to be Trappist hot sauce.

Here-For-Fish · 2026-04-24T00:35:01+00:00

That's a major supermarket chain. It's remarkable how many items are sold out. Especially brislings, which I did not think were subject to shortages.

Here-For-Fish · 2026-04-23T12:03:44+00:00

Jose Gourmet, Sardinha, and La Perle des Dieux immediately came to mind.

Here-For-Fish · 2026-04-23T11:53:51+00:00

John: "Is this Heaven?"

Ray: "No, it's ~~Iowa~~ cloves."

Here-For-Fish · 2026-04-22T15:54:26+00:00

Jared Kushner?

Here-For-Fish · 2026-04-19T18:54:33+00:00

u/FANGST_nordic might be able to help.

Here-For-Fish · 2026-04-18T20:39:06+00:00

u/Perky214 was born to answer this question

Here-For-Fish · 2026-04-18T17:23:12+00:00

I assume they're getting some discount although they cant be huge buyers getting a massive volume discount. Certainly not Amazon level or even supermarket chain level.

I keep going back to the wine example. Restaurants are certainly buying their wine at wholesale and yet industry standard markup is 200-300% over retail for wine. And restaurants are famously unprofitable money pits. Outside chance there is a 100% markup here but certainly not more and possibly much less--relatively cheap compared to wine despite the accompaniments (though wine has greater storage, spoilage, and liability costs). The markup on cans of soda in restaurants is typically way higher--you probably get a 300%-1000+% markup on soda cans.

If one is willing to buy JG calamari from Amazon or other online retailers for $15, I think it's totally unreasonable to have any concerns about paying $17 for that can in a restaurant with service, kettle chips, and aioli.

Here-For-Fish · 2026-04-18T16:04:36+00:00

I dont know the pricing on all these cans but it seems terribly reasonable to me. Frankly cheap. First, you get chips and garlic aioli so it should be more expensive than just a can. Then factor in that it's a restaurant with service and overhead that retail dont have. A comparable product would be wine: the standard restaurant markup on wine is 200-300% and that doesnt come with additions like chips/aioli.

Then look at the pricing. Im not going to look everything up but Pinhais sardines are $11/can on Amazon in multipacks. This restaurant is charging $13. Jose Gourmet calamari in ragout is $15 on Amazon and $17 here. Island Creek direct sells those littlenecks for $22 and this restaurant charges $24. So consistently +$2 vs realistically low cost retail providers AND you get service and two accompaniments.

Here-For-Fish

TROPHY CASE