The end of an era has come for award-winning gourmet food store Eden Smokehouse, with seafood becoming unaffordable and a "luxury" of the past.
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On June 30, after 18 years of running the business, Eden Smokehouse owner Stan Soroka decided to shut up shop.
The decision had been one he "saw coming" due to recent struggles in accessing their mussel and salmon supplies.
"Within three to four years you're not going to see Australian seafood, it's just a luxury and it will all be imported," Mr Soroka said.
Mr Soroka said the troubles had begun when they had difficulty getting their mussels supply from New Zealand.
"All of a sudden they had become very hard to get, because they had begun exporting to Europe for double the cost," Mr Soroka said.
"That was 30 per cent of our business, and then we knew what was coming when we couldn't get the Atlantic salmon either."
Mr Soroka said the costs of the salmon kept rising and it had all become "too expensive".
"The new prices would have just put it out of reach for a lot of the people who like our products," he said.
Mr Soroka said while it was disappointing to see their suppliers move to exporting overseas, he understood the "commercial reality".
"They have to go with the market and their costs have risen as well, so they're doing the right thing to stay afloat but unfortunately, we Australians got punished for it," he said.
Mr Soroka said the future for affordable seafood was looking pretty bleak.
"I've been across the food industry and manufacturing all my life and with the prices we're seeing now, we'll never see cheap seafood again," he said.
Mr Soroka said despite recent struggles he maintained fond memories, some of which included winning several champion prizes at the Sydney Royal Fine Food Shows, for their smoked salmon.
"We took great pleasure in showing the food industry that a small town and a small business could produce the top quality products."