Wholesale prices for sashimi have doubled since Christmas, with demand for the slices of raw fish at its highest this time of year, Maui fish vendors said Thursday.

“One supplier is not even quoting a price till (today),” said Lance Takamiya, manager at Takamiya Market in Wailuku. “I guess it’s supply and demand. They know they can get the price.”

With New Year’s just around the corner, vendors are rushing to fill orders of the always popular ahi and hamachi for the red-and-white dishes considered good luck for the new year.

Kaohu Store, also known as Wailuku Market, has already hit its limit for sashimi platters with 75 orders, manager Brad Yokouchi said.

“I’m up to my eyeballs with cutting fish,” Yokouchi said.

Over a two-day span, the store takes in about 700 pounds of ahi filet for “sashimi and poke and whatever else I have to fill,” Yokouchi said. He expected to go also through about 100 pounds of salmon and 80 pounds of hamachi over the weekend.

Yokouchi and another worker do most of the fish cutting. When things get really busy, Yokouchi’s 9-year-old son, Brady, helps cut poke cubes.

“It does get crazy,” Yokouchi said. “People get desperate, and I understand, but we can only do so much.”

While the store has already halted its platter orders, sashimi variety packs of salmon, ahi, saba, tako, ika and shrimp are available for $20. Also a popular purchase is the hokkigai clams used in ozoni, a Japanese soup of mochi, vegetables and meat traditionally consumed on New Year’s Day.

Elisa Garcia, owner of Oki’s Seafood Corner in the Foodland Kaahumanu, said that her business has about 60 orders for sashimi platters. Garcia said it’s hard to tell how this year’s sales compare to last year’s, since many people will likely come in at the last minute. Oki’s platters sell for $30 for the 9-inch, $40 to 50 for the 12-inch and $100 for the 16-inch.

Garcia said she has ahi, opakapaka and hamachi on hand. A sashimi-grade block of ahi is $26 a pound, while filets go for $20 a pound. Hamachi runs at $22 a pound, while a whole opakapaka sells for $16.99 per pound.

“We’ve been looking for red fish like onaga but the weather has been so rough lately,” Garcia said. “(Customers) like red for the new year.”

Garcia said that this year wasn’t good for bottom fishing, but that the trolling has been good. Yokouchi said the weather has been “real finicky this year, actually the last two years.”

“It was different this year. The prices were high,” he said. “This was the first year I had to hold my poke prices at $18.99 a pound. There were days I had to buy fish at $18 a pound. I took a loss on those days.”

Takamiya, on the other hand, said the prices were “kind of reasonable” throughout the year. He said this year’s holiday sales have been “about the same as last year.” The market sells mostly ahi platters and ahi poke. Prices can change, but the 12-inch platters start at $45, the 16-inch platters start at $70 and the 18-inch platters start at $90.

Takamiya said there’s always competition for poke and sashimi this time of year, but “we just try to stay ahead and do our best to keep the customers.”

“For the holidays, we try to push more the party platters, the sashimi platters . . . stuff you can take to somebody’s house,” Takamiya said. “Everybody now, they want to buy mostly prepared food already.”

Fish vendors said that their orders for New Year’s are often higher than Christmastime orders. Oki’s sold 600 pounds of sashimi at Christmas and will likely go through 800 pounds for New Year’s, said Garcia’s daughter Rizza. Takamiya Market has double the orders to fill during New Year’s, and Yokouchi said Christmas orders are “probably one-fourth of what I do during New Year’s.”

Colleen Mitsumura, food service and kitchen manager at Tamura’s Express in Wailuku, said orders haven’t been as high this year because the company hasn’t advertised as much, but that things have been busier in general since Tamura’s opened its kitchen at the Alua Street location in November 2015.

Tamura’s Fine Wine & Liquors specializes in wine, beer and poke and has locations around Maui and Oahu. However, the sashimi platters can be found only at Tamura’s Express. A 12-inch platter starts at $45 and a 16-inch platter starts at $65, depending on the fish and the day’s prices, Mistumura said. Tamura’s has ahi, hamachi and salmon on hand.

Tamura’s will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday but closed Sunday. Takamiya Market will be open 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and closed Sunday. Kaohu Store will be open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday; closed Sunday. Oki’s Seafood Corner will be open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

• Colleen Uechi can be reached at cuechi@mauinews.com