Fish sales in the U.K. grocery channel soared in the run-up to the end of last year, with a particularly strong performance in the value-added category, the latest retail figures published by shopping behavior analysts Kantar Worldpanel found.
Its latest meat, fish and poultry (MFP) figures for the 12 weeks ending 1 January, 2017, in the United Kingdom and incorporating the crucial festive New Year's period herald a strong start to 2017, with all macro categories in volume growth.
Beef and chicken growth continued and turkey became the third-fastest growing category in primary meat in volume terms, following a record-breaking Christmas. But chilled fish was the fastest growing macro category and the only category seeing value growth ahead of volume, as more than 370,000 shoppers bought into the category.
Rising prices in natural and smoked fish helped drive overall prices up.
Kantar highlighted that added-value continued to close in on the volume of natural fish with 640,000 more shoppers added through cod, shrimp, haddock and lobster products.
Battered products have also been growing strongly, albeit from a small base as haddock performed strongly, while shrimp, surimi and crab were the sectors fuelling shellfish performance, adding 2.1 million trips to chilled shellfish compared to 2015.
In the 12-week period, the frequency of beef sales increased by 6.9 million year-on-year with more shoppers buying across the cuts, turkey moved into volume growth “undoubtedly bolstered by traditional Christmas dinners,” and fresh chicken attracted 540,000 more shoppers to bring the market back into value growth, said Nathan Ward, business unit director for MFP at Kantar Worldpanel.
However, Ward added that with New Year’s resolutions driving much more health conscious behavior, it was likely that a different picture would be seen in the next update.
