This year’s Easter fortnight, 8-22 April, saw sales of fresh fish in U.K. retail reach their highest level in three years, amounting to 6,051 metric tons (MT), which was 3.2 percent or 188 MT more than in 2015 and up slightly compared to last year, said the U.K. Seafish Authority.
According to Seafish’s latest grocery data, more people ate fish during the two-week Easter period than they did in the previous fortnight, with an increase of 0.7 percent or 92.4 MT in the volume of fish sold in the U.K. market. Seafish said “good value options” such as warmwater shrimp, pangasius, haddock, cod, plaice, trout and whitebait all proved popular over Easter, increasing their sales volume from both the previous fortnight and Easter 2016.
Whitebait had the most significant percentage uplift (629.8 percent), with 9 MT of the tiny members of the herring family sold this year, compared to 1 MT last Easter. Snapper saw the biggest percentage increase in volume sales compared to the fortnight before Easter with a 74.9 percent rise, from 1.5 MT to 2.7 MT.
In overall value terms, more than GBP 130.2 million (USD 168.6 million, EUR 148.3 million) worth of seafood was sold at Easter this year, which was 7 percent higher than last year.
Replicating consumption trends seen in the market at Christmas, fresh fish topped the segments in terms of increasing volume (up 0.3 percent) and value (up 7.6 percent) on Easter 2016, with total sales at over GBP 85 million (USD 110.1 million, EUR 96.8 million). In comparison to the fortnight before Easter, the fresh fish volume increased by 1.4 percent, while the value climbed by 4.1 percent.
The frozen sector saw volume grow by 0.2 percent and value rise by 5.8 percent to GBP 28.5 million (USD 36.9 million, EUR 32.5 million), compared to Easter last year. When compared with the two-weeks before Easter, there were increases in the value and volume of 4.2 percent and 0.6 percent respectively.
Ambient fish was the only sector to experience a dip in volume compared to Easter 2016 (down 5.3 percent), despite the sales value rising by 5.8 percent to GBP 16.6 million (USD 21.5 million, EUR 18.9 million). The sector also experienced a decrease in volume (0.6 percent) compared to the fortnight prior to Easter, but the value increased by 0.9 percent.
“It’s clear from this data that the tradition of enjoying fresh fish at Easter, such as a haddock and cod, is still going strong,” said Julia Brooks, market insight analyst at Seafish. “With Easter 2017 occurring later in the year, fish sales benefitted from not just the Easter spike, but also the normal spring seasonal uplift.
“The high increase in whitebait consumption was a trend we noted at Christmas which appears to have continued throughout 2017.
“In addition, we’ve seen certain species, such as basa (pangasius), making a splash this year. This could be down to consumers looking for a cheaper alternative to traditional staples such as cod, haddock and monkfish,” said Brooks.
