November 8 2021. That’s when SA’s only fish paste plant produced its last jars of Peck’s Anchovette and Redro before shutting its doors.

Pioneer Foods told its retailers of the impending demise of those products in advance of the Saldanha plant shutdown, so that they could order more than their usual stock of those little glass jars in December. But fish paste lovers were left in the dark and have only recently learnt the bad news, as stocks have run out on many supermarket shelves around the country...