$5 vs. $11 Tinned Mackerel 🎣 Tinned Fish Talk 🐟 Ocean’s Sweet Smoked Mackerel $4.60 🐟 Fishwife Slow Smoked Mackerel $10.67 Which one is better value? Both tins come from Scotland, and in my research there’s only one cannery there. So one possibility is the tins are likely from International Fish Canners Ltd, a manufacturer of private label canned fish products. While not identical, these two tins are incredibly similar in taste and texture despite a big difference in price. Fishwife’s marketing is a plus for bringing new customers into the category, but it’s what’s in the tin that counts. Ocean’s recipe tastes nearly identical, and at half the price I’m personally sticking with this option. The lack of transparency around co-packing and white labeling makes it hard for customers to vet whether they’re getting a higher quality product or just a packaging variant. To clarify, private labeling and co-manufacturing are incredibly common in the consumer packaged goods industry. Many of my favorite tinned fish brands also work with canners to co-manufacture unique products to their specifications. In some cases, a private labeled product is even cheaper than the name brand (like Trader Joes vs. Porthos). For transparency: Fishwife gifted this tin to me and I have no material relationship with Ocean’s.