If your annual Christmas feast consists of a bucket of prawns then you may be in trouble. Prices for a whole range of different seafood is set to rise just before the festive season. It’s the result of increased demand, as well as multiple outbreaks of disease earlier this year.

The expected prices of Christmas favourite prawns may have you reaching for a leg of ham instead. Tiger prawns are currently for sale for about $45 a kilo, an increase of $15 from this time last year. And that’s not the worst of it – prices are only set to rise. “It’s up nearly 50 percent at this time last year,” Claudio’s Seafoods wholesale buyer Andy Widjaja told News.com.au. “Tiger prawn numbers are down because they were wiped out in Queensland from the floods, and imported prawns have been banned because of so many chemicals. So I think people will be paying around $52 per kilo by Christmas. There’s just not a lot of prawns, so it’s looking like the worst in 30 years.”

Seafood fans are being urged that their best option is to buy prawns as early as possible before prices surge again. “The overall message is don’t leave it to the last minute to go shopping for seafood for Christmas,” says Queensland Seafood Marketers Association president Marshall Betzel.

“The prudent buyer should be looking at buying prawns today. Prawns snap-frozen on the boat come up a treat when thawed out so you could be buying them and putting them in the freezer until Christmas to make sure you don’t miss out,” he explains.

The same warning applies to oysters, after disease outbreaks in 2017 have led to ongoing stock shortages Australia-wide.