The sale

Auction sales

The sale of products is carried out in reverse compared to normal, this is called a Dutch auction.

The seller, after approving and registering the lot (name of the vessel, the species , size, quality, day fishing, etc.), assigns a starting price for the auction. The batch is then offered for sale: the price decreases. Buyers, equipped with remote control, acquire the lot by pressing the buy button: the product is won by the highest bidder.

 If two buyers bid at the same price: the price rises. The buyer that presses his button wins the auction purchased at a higher price.

This method of selling allows a very fast rate of sale. Thus, the fish market of Sète sells an average of 700 product lots per hour, a total of about 2200 lots per day. The speed of the service assure quality and freshness of the products. 

Auction area

To meet the needs of the fish sellers and buyers, the auction sale of Sète is on two levels :

• Sales carried by conveyor belt using 30 liter bins (1 bin = 1 lot)
• Sales stored in multiple cold storage pallets consisting of several 30litre bins or boxes (dedicated for pelagic fish). This system can meet the demands of wholesalers and brokers for pelagic fish sales which the market can provide in batches of more than a hundred kilos. This also serves to streamline the sale of fish on the conveyor system in case of a high intake of a single species (bogue, capelin, mackerel, sea bream).

Scheduled Purchases

The auction at Sete is studying the establishment of a scheduled purchase system.

• Delayed program buying in advance such purchases categorized by: cash, weight, price, size, quality, ship, etc. This programming can take place several days in advance.
• Real-time: by connecting remotely, the buyer can set a price for the lot that has been selected by the seller and will be offered for sale.

This implementation should take place in 2015.