The number of seafood products sold by grocery chains in the United Kingdom has risen steadily over the past year and this has lifted the overall value of seafood sales in the retail channel, yet the actual volume of products bought by shoppers has continued to decline, finds the first-quarter 2019 Nielsen ScanTrack data supplied by the U.K. Seafish Authority.
U.K. shoppers bought GBP 3.28 billion (USD 4.1 billion, EUR 3.7 billion) worth of seafood in the 12 months through 23 March 2019, which represented an increase of 0.3 percent year-on-year. With lower prices in the chilled category, the number of units sold increased by 0.6 percent to 1.16 billion.
Over the course of the year, the average price paid for all seafood items was GBP 2.82 (USD 3.53, EUR 3.14) per unit, representing a decrease of 0.3 percent. However, the average price per kilogram increased by 1.2 percent year-on-year to GBP 10.48 (USD 13.10, EUR 11.68), while the total volume of seafood purchased fell by 0.9 percent to 312,913 metric tons (MT).
Seafish’s retail sales figures confirmed that chilled seafood, which accounts for more than 64 percent of total purchases, experienced a 0.1 percent fall in sales value, reaching GBP 2.1 billion (USD 2.6 billion, EUR 2.3 billion) for the 12-month period. The volume of chilled sales increased by 0.6 percent to 151,456 MT, while the number of units sold climbed 1.7 percent to almost 622 million. The average price paid across the category was GBP 13.89 (USD 17.37, EUR 15.48) per kg and GBP 3.38 (USD 4.23, EUR 3.77) per unit, down by 0.7 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively.
With regards to the other main sales categories, the value of the frozen seafood sales increased remained unchanged at GBP 735.6 million (USD 919.7 million, EUR 819.9 million), and ambient seafood sales grew by 2.5 percent to GBP 441.7 million (USD 552.3 million, EUR 492.4 million).
The volume sold in frozen fell by 3 percent to 100,809 MT and the number of units purchased declined by 1.5 percent to 281.7 million, while the ambient volume slipped by 1.1 percent to 60,647 MT and the number of units sold increased by 0.3 percent to almost 257.7 million.
Average frozen seafood prices for the 12 months increased by 3.1 percent to GBP 7.30 (USD 9.13, EUR 8.14) per kg, and by 1.5 percent to GBP 2.61 (USD 3.16, EUR 2.91) per unit. Ambient seafood prices increased by 3.7 percent per kg to GBP 7.28 (USD 9.10, EUR 8.11) and 2.2 percent to GBP 1.71 (USD 2.14, EUR 1.91) per unit.
Frozen and ambient sales accounted for 22.4 percent and 13.5 percent of the U.K. retail market value, respectively.
In terms of the species sold across all categories, the U.K. retail market is led by salmon with sales approaching GBP 929.1 million (USD 1.2 billion, EUR 1 billion) for the 12-month period, up 1 percent year-on-year. In volume terms, sales increased by 4 percent to 53,407 MT, and unit sales were 3.5 percent higher at 232.6 million.
Cod and tuna followed with sales values of almost GBP 410 million (USD 512.7 million, EUR 457 million) and GBP 336.4 million (USD 420.7 million, EUR 375 million) respectively.
In terms of retail prices, salmon was down by 2.9 percent to GBP 17.40 (USD 21.76, EUR 19.40) per kg, while cod was up 3.6 percent to GBP 8.82 (USD 11.03, EUR 9.83) and tuna increased by 5.2 percent to GBP 7.42 (USD 9.28, EUR 8.27).
The most growth was seen by pollock in eighth place, with consumers buying 27,561 MT (up 10.2 percent) or 73.6 million units (up 11.5 percent), generating a total sales value of GBP 129.7 million (USD 162.2 million, EUR 144.6 million), which was 15 percent more than in the previous 12 months.
With 22.4 percent of the total sales value, Tesco continued to be the country’s leading seafood retailer, followed by Sainsbury’s with 14.6 percent and discounter Aldi with 10.6 percent. Aldi, Asda, Waitrose, and Lidl were the only chains in the top 12 to grow market share over the 12 months.
