Seafood sales in the United Kingdom increased substantially over the recent Easter retail period, with chilled fish and shellfish making the biggest gains, according to new market data published by the U.K. Seafish Authority.
Seafish’s figures showed a 6.5 percent increase in the value of overall seafood sold in the two weeks containing Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, compared to the two weeks previous. This is a significant improvement compared to the 0.5 percent increase in seafood sales reported for Easter 2015.
“Easter has always been the perfect time to enjoy seafood with your nearest and dearest, and these figures show that more and more people are choosing fresh fish as an alternative or accompaniment to the traditional Easter roast. As well as being a strong indicator of shifting consumer tastes, it is very encouraging to see the positive effects of retailers expanding their product ranges and championing a variety of seafood for Easter,” said Julia Brooks, market insight analyst at Seafish.
Chilled fish saw the biggest jump, with an 8.7 percent growth in value sales during the two Easter weeks compared to the previous fortnight. Within this category, natural and dusted seafood had the most notable surges, with sales of each rising by 14.1 percent and 13.5 percent respectively.
Shellfish was firmly on the menu this Easter, with an 18.5 percent spike in sales of chilled lobster. However, this jump is less significant than in 2015, when there was a rise in sales of 22.3 percent. Chilled crab sales also rose by 11.8 percent, compared to 5.4 percent last year and chilled crayfish, an increasingly popular alternative to shrimps and prawns, saw an increase of 7.9 percent, after a sales drop of 3.2 percent over Easter 2015.
Meanwhile, sales of chilled, natural cod rose by 43.8 percent, compared to 10.6 percent in 2015 and sales of chilled sole jumped by 21.1 percent, compared to an increase of 2.3 percent last year.
Less traditional species also found consumer favor. Overall sales of pangasius increased by 8.9 percent during Easter, after experiencing a 0.8 percent dip in sales during the same period last year.
