The recent Christmas retail period brought a spike in sales of seafood species and products traditionally underused by U.K. consumers, according to new market data published by Seafish.
The authority’s data found that whitebait was one of the market’s most significant success stories, with GBP 34,500 (EUR 44,750; USD 50,037) worth of the bite sized fish sold in the four-week period from 6 December to 2 January 2016, an 11,858 percent increase compared to the sales figures for the same period last year.
Adventurous consumers also purchased 234 percent more cuttlefish – more than GBP 3,000 (EUR 3,891; USD 4,351) worth of the cephalopod made its way into shopping baskets, compared to almost negligible sales during Christmas 2014.
Another success was the growth in sales of ling, a fish native to the arctic and North Sea that’s similar in taste and texture to cod. This species saw a 3,128 percent increase in sales over the festive period in comparison to last year.
Meanwhile, snapper showed signs of becoming one of the market’s favourite tropical species with sales of GBP 10,200 (EUR 13,232; USD 14,792) for the period, representing an increase of 418 percent year-on-year.
Bottom feeders such as skate and ray also made a bigger impact with sales of GBP 122,470 (EUR 158,871; USD 177,611) in retailers over Christmas, a growth of 162.1 percent year-on-year.
Premium seafood products were also on the menu, with consumers purchasing a record GBP 167,502 (EUR 217,343; USD 242,919) of caviar, an increase of 44 percent.
“It’s great to see a wider variety of seafood making gains in the marketplace. As well as being an indicator of shifting consumer tastes, these findings also reflect an increased effort from retailers to expand their product ranges and bring undervalued, high quality species into the mainstream,” said Julia Brooks, market insight analyst at Seafish.
