The United Kingdom’s seafood sector recorded total trade worth GBP 6.09 billion (USD 8.2 billion, EUR 7.1 billion) in 2025, with higher prices, shifting global supply chains, and growing demand in Asia reshaping both import and export patterns, according to Seafish’s latest End of Year Trade Report.
While that trade value represented a 4.5 percent increase year over year, Seafish’s “U.K. Seafood Trade 2025” report highlights an increasingly complex operating environment for seafood businesses, with tighter wild-capture supply, growing dependence on aquaculture, evolving tariff regimes, and rising regulatory costs all influencing the market.
U.K. seafood imports climbed 6.1 percent in value to GBP 4.07 billion (USD 5.5 billion, EUR 4.7 billion) during 2025, but volumes increased by only 1.3 percent, underlining how inflation and supply constraints continue to drive the market. Exports also rose in value, increasing 1.3 percent to GBP 2.01 billion (USD 2.7 billion, EUR 2.3 billion), despite export volumes declining by 2 percent as domestic supply tightened.
The report paints a stark picture for traditional whitefish species, with cod and haddock markets facing continuing supply pressure. The report highlighted that cod import prices rose 27.7 percent during 2025, while haddock prices surged 47.4 percent, among the strongest price increases across all seafood categories.
Seafish told SeafoodSource the fall in wild capture's share of U.K. seafood imports has mostly been driven by low cod availability over the past few years. The non-departmental public body added that while cod remains one of the top consumed species, the rising price “has pushed some consumers away.”
With much of the sales coming from fish and chip shops, this trend is more pronounced when there is wider food price inflation, it said.
“While a growing share of imports are farmed species like salmon and prawns, consumers aren't choosing to buy these species instead of cod. Salmon and prawn consumption have benefited from greater global production and relatively stable prices recently,” Seafish said.
The trade body said it expects further tightening of the whitefish trade in 2026 following additional quota cuts across key cod fisheries in the Barents Sea, Iceland, and the North Sea, with the report noting that cod availability is projected to fall by a further 7 percent this year.
By contrast, Alaska pollock imports increased by 11.5 percent, reinforcing its role as a lower-cost alternative species as traditional whitefish prices climb.
One of the trends noted throughout the report is the increasing importance of aquaculture in supplying the U.K. seafood market. It highlighted that imports of farmed whitefish continued to rise sharply, with tilapia imports jumping 46.3 percent and catfish up 9.7 percent in 2025.
Over the past five years, imports of farmed whitefish have increased by almost 25 percent, while wild-caught whitefish imports have fallen by more than 16 percent, reflecting what Seafish describes as a “gradual shift toward aquaculture and more diverse global sourcing.”
“Farmed whitefish have been an established part of seafood consumption in the U.K. for decades,” Seafish commented. “In U.K. retail, the key relevant species are sea bass and basa [pangasius], currently ranked the 10th and 11th most popular species by value and are moving up the ranking quickly. Together, both species sales account for around GBP 190 million [USD 255.6 million, EUR 220 million] and 15,000 metric tons [MT] annually and typically return strong growth over both the long and short term.”
This year, sea bass and pangasius volume sales are up 41 percent and 34 percent, respectively, compared to 10 years ago, it added.
The salmon sector also continued to expand in 2025. Rising Norwegian and Scottish production increased availability and pushed prices lower, helping U.K. salmon import volumes rise by 1.4 percent, while export volumes grew by 7.9 percent. However, lower global prices reduced export value by 2.5 percent despite stronger sales into the United States and Asia.
Another emerging issue identified in the report is the growing impact of U.S. trade policy on global seafood supply chains.
The report said the U.S.’s introduction of tariffs in 2025 is already reshaping international trade flows for products including salmon, tuna, pangasius, and shrimp.
For salmon, Norwegian exporters faced a 15 percent tariff into the U.S. market, compared with 10 percent for U.K. exports, improving the competitiveness of Scottish salmon and helping boost U.K. exports to the United States by 26.8 percent in value terms.
The report also intimates that tariffs could redirect larger volumes of Asian farmed whitefish and tuna products toward Europe and the United Kingdom, potentially improving supply availability and moderating prices.
Meanwhile, the implementation of U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) import provisions in 2026 could create additional disruption for several tuna-producing nations currently deemed non-compliant with U.S.-equivalent standards.
Seafish said another notable trend is the continued diversification of U.K. seafood exports away from Europe and toward North America and Asia. Over the past five years, the share of U.K. seafood export value destined for Europe has fallen from 75.5 percent to 64 percent, while exports to the Americas and Asia have grown significantly.
“China, Vietnam, and South Korea have presented strong growth opportunities for U.K. exporters in recent years, supported by growing demand for imported seafood, rising incomes and improved market access,” Seafish said. “Vietnam is particularly important not only as a consumer market but also as a major seafood processing and re-export hub supplying wider Asian markets.”
The organization further suggests recent progress on market access, including the reopening of live shellfish exports to Vietnam, could support further growth opportunities for U.K. exporters.
“We understand that once registered for China and Vietnam, things are relatively simple,” it said. “However, the process for registration is time-consuming and information can be hard to find.”
One of the report’s more unusual findings concerns the dramatic rise in octopus landings around Southwest England.
U.K. octopus exports surged during 2025 following what Seafish described as an octopus “bloom,” likely linked to unusually warm seas. Landings increased by more than 1,800 percent, with exports growing rapidly to Spain and France. However, the report also warns the phenomenon may be increasing predation pressure on commercially important shellfish species, including brown crab, lobster, and scallops.
