U.K. shoppers bought less seafood last Christmas than the previous year as the price of products in retail channels soared in the run up to the 2018 festive period, new data has confirmed.
Christmas is traditionally the peak time of year for sales of seafood in retail, typified by a sharp increase in the volume of sales made, followed by a sharp drop and then a leveling off in January. However, the latest Nielsen ScanTrack data supplied by the U.K. Seafish Authority confirmed that 2018 saw a smaller sales peak compared with 2017.
In volume terms, the final two weeks of December 2018 saw sales down by 0.4 percent or 64 metric tons (MT) year-on-year, with the value of these sales falling by 0.7 percent or GBP 1.2 million (USD 1.6 million, EUR 1.4 million).
The 2018 Christmas fortnight brought seafood sales of 15,000 MT, worth around GBP 172 million (USD 228.2 million, EUR 200.4 million), with consumers in the week ending 22 December alone spending GBP 102.4 million (USD 135.8 million, EUR 119.3 million) on 8,793 MT of products.
While salmon, cod, tuna and shrimp continued to be the big sellers, the most sales volume growth compared to the first two weeks of December was seen with lobsters (up 161 percent), caviar (up 143.9 percent), scallops (up 139.5 percent) and langoustines (up 116.5 percent).
The data discloses that prices increased substantially during the Christmas fortnight, with the average price-per-kg up 15.8 percent or GBP 1.56 (USD 2.07, EUR 1.82) to GBP 11.45 (USD 15.19, EUR 13.34). This equated to a 12.8 percent spike in the average price per unit, which climbed to GBP 2.99 (USD 3.97, EUR 3.48).
