The total value achieved by seafood purchasing in U.K. retail has risen by more than 4 percent in the past 12 months, but this growth has been led by soaring prices across all categories with the overall volume and number of sales in the channel continuing to decline, new data has confirmed.
According to the latest Nielsen ScanTrack data supplied by the U.K. Seafish Authority, overall sales (not including the discount chains) increased to more than GBP 3.27 billion (USD 4.5 billion, EUR 3.7 billion) for the 52 weeks ending 24 March 2018. In volume terms, these transactions equated to 316,144 metric tons (MT) of products and less than 1.2 million unit sales, which were down 3.2 percent and 2.9 percent year-on-year respectively.
The figures also found that chilled seafood – retail’s lead category – experienced a growth in sales value of 4 percent surpassing GBP 2.1 billion (USD 2.9 billion, EUR 2.4 billion) for the 12-month period. However, consumers bought less of these products (volume and units) than they did a year previously and paid much more for them. In volume terms, chilled sales amounted to 150,599 MT or 610,957 unit sales, with an average price across the category of GBP 13.97 (USD 19.18, EUR 15.87) per kg or GBP 3.44 (USD 4.72, EUR 3.91) per unit.
Meanwhile, the value of the frozen seafood category increased by 5.7 percent to GBP 735.8 million (USD 1 billion, EUR 836 million), and ambient seafood sales grew by 2.1 percent to GBP 430.5 million (USD 590.9 million, EUR 489.2 million). The volume and number of units sold in frozen were down 1 percent and up 1.1 percent respectively, while in ambient they declined by 9.9 percent and 7.1 percent.
Chilled sales accounted for an increased 64.3 percent of the U.K. retail market, while the share occupied by frozen and ambient fell to 22.5 percent and 7.7 percent respectively.
In terms of the species sold across all categories, the U.K. retail market continued to be led by salmon with total sales of GBP 919.1 million (USD 1.3 billion, EUR 1 billion), up 5.1 percent year-on-year, which was based on a volume of 51,470 MT (down 8.8 percent) and unit sales of 224.5 million (down 9 percent). Salmon was followed by cod and tuna with sales values of GBP 412.5 million (USD 566.3 million, EUR 468.8 million) and GBP 326.8 million (USD 448.6 million, EUR 371.4 million) respectively, although only cod showed any increase in volume – rising 1.2 percent to 48,453 MT and 1.2 percent to 138.7 million units.
The price-per-kg of these three species increased by 15.2 percent, 6.2 percent and 15.6 percent respectively.
With 23.1 percent of the total sales value, Tesco continued to be the country’s leading seafood retailer, followed by Sainsbury’s with 15.1 percent and Aldi with 9.7 percent.
Aldi leapfrogged Morrisons to take the third berth, and with a 1 percent rise in market share over the last 12 months, the discounter showed the most growth of all seafood retailers.
