Why This Lobster Just Sold for £2,000

As the days crawl towards payday, most of us will be reaching for those emergency tins of spaghetti hoops at the back of the top kitchen cupboard. But for Swedish seafood fans, the end of September is not a time to be thrifty.

Yesterday marked the official first day of the the Swedish lobster season, which runs until the next April. This morning at 7 AM sharp, the first crustacean was sold for a cool 20,000 kroner, which works out as more than £1,800.

The first lobster of the season is always highly sought after and at this morning's Gothenburg Fish Auction, the premier crustacean, which weighed in at nearly a kilo, went home with fishmonger Pontus Johansson. He was bidding on behalf of an anonymous customer.

Johansson told Swedish news agency TT Newswire: "It is a lot of fun to buy the first lobster. Last year I gave up and the customer was very disappointed. This year we had decided that we would just go for it."

Compared to the hefty price tags of previous years, Johansson scooped a bargain. In 2012, the opening lobster at auction fetched 102,000 kroner per kilo (more than £11,800).

And you thought treating yourself to a midweek cook-in-the-bag salmon fillet was was pushing the boat out.

But Sweden's expensive seafood traditions could soon be under threat. In March, the Swedish environment ministry raised concerns about sightings of live American lobsters in European waters. They warned that American lobsters, which are thought to have escaped during deliveries from Maine, could spread disease and cause inbreeding with the smaller, more delicate Swedish crustaceans.

Earlier this month, the European Union Scientific Forum on Invasive Alien Species, confirmed the validity of the potential danger to Swedish seafood and is currently looking into whether a ban on lobster imports from US should be implemented.

The fate of the prize lobster sold at this morning's auction, however—whether it be the pot or a tank—remains unknown.