The price hike can be attributed to the fact that fishermen in the Baltic, who are forced to catch less due to regulations, have cranked up the asking price in order to survive, said Mati Vetevool, owner and executive director of the fish trading company M.V. Wool.

At the same time, Maaleht predicts a quota-related imminent price hike also for Atlantic herring, still very popular among Estonian consumers, holding a 83 percent share of the salted fish market.

"Even the economic slump did not reduce the sales of Atlantic herring [in Estonia] and the figures are now growing," said Urmas Karnö, CEO of Viciunai Baltic, an Estonian-Lithuanian company that packages one-third of the herring sold in Estonia.

According to Mindaugas Pocius, head of the Viciunai factory in Lithuania, the company will keep the price of its produce steady despite the growing prices for Atlantic herring  "for the next couple of months" and observe the actions of competitors.

According to Statistics Estonia's consumer price index, from 1999 to 2011 the price of fish and seafood grew by 70 percent in Estonia compared to rest of the European Union's 34 percent.

Ingrid Teesalu