Rockpool’s tuna supplier is about to start selling sashimi-grade tuna at Coles, so that’s iso meals sorted for the foreseeable future.
With the coronavirus pandemic eliminating the export market for Aussie produce and forcing local restaurants to close, suppliers are looking for new ways to sell their products.
Now Queensland-based Walker Seafoods has entered into an agreement with Coles to sell its sashimi-grade yellowfin tuna, meaning there simply no excuse not to add tuna to your culinary repertoire.
“When the international market collapsed due to COVID-19, and local restaurants were ordered to close, we needed a way to keep our boats fishing and 50 staff employed,” the company’s co-owner Heidi Walker told Good Food.
“Two weeks ago I contacted Coles to see if they could help put our tuna in their supermarkets and they jumped at the chance.”
From Wednesday, the tuna steaks will be stocked in around 150 supermarkets in NSW, Victoria and Queensland at $35 a kilo – around half the price it was going for before the pandemic.
Coles advises customers to sear the tuna steaks in a pan before eating them.
Previously, Walker Seafoods had mainly supplied to high-end restaurants including Sydney’s Rockpool Bar & Grill and Melbourne’s Stokehouse, as well as to the American and Japanese markets.
Meanwhile, the prices for mud crabs and rock lobsters have also plummeted in recent weeks as the market dries up.
It’s a similar story for other kinds of produce, too. Most notably, there’s currently a glut of cheap avocados in supermarkets.
Name a more iconic duo than tuna and avocado. Try it. It’s just not possible.
So that’s it, we’re all set to live off homemade ceviche and poke bowls until lockdown’s over.
Yum.
