Seafood merchants expect more than 15 tonne of prawns will sell before Christmas this year as Canberrans stockpile festive foods.
FishCo managing director John Fragopoulossaid his 12- and 24-tonne refrigerated trucks had been zipping up and down the highway from fish markets in Sydney and to coastal co-ops collecting the highest quality offerings for customers.
Every week the trucks deliver fresh seafood to his stores in Fyshwick, Belconnen and Woden on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. However, for the Christmas week there will be an additional run on Thursday.
"This Christmas the main thing people are after is oysters and prawns," Mr Fragopoulos said.
"We have been very lucky this year, just as last year, that Australian farmers managed to have an early crop. By nature the majority of farms harvest the bigger prawns from January onwards."
Customers had a wide variety of options with pacific oysters, rock oysters and various species of prawns all with different taste profiles.
Mr Fragopoulos encourages the "try before you buy" method to ensure the perfect match.
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"It is an investment," he said. "You might buy $20, $30, $40, $50, $100 worth of seafood. If you go home and on Christmas Day when you open them up they're too salty or not sweet enough then your dinner is ruined."
There's an ocean of options for buyers able to select lobster, shellfish, octopus, large whole snapper or barramundi and more.
However, Mr Fragopoulos said each year the top selling fish was salmon.
Preparations had begun for Christmas Eve trade on Saturday. All hands will be on deck with more than 30 staff manning six registers split into cash and card sales to minimise queues.
"It's our biggest day," he said. "For the Fyshwick retail shop we are aiming for a bumper year, maybe $300,000."