Though the total value of salmon sold in the U.K. retail channel continued to grow last year, the sales volume of the market’s most popular seafood product decreased significantly.
According to the latest Nielsen ScanTrack data supplied by the U.K. Seafish Authority, total salmon sales increased in value to GBP 909.8 million (USD 1.3 billion, EUR 1 billion) for the 52 weeks ending 2 December 2017, representing an increase of 4.4 percent. While this value is more than double that achieved by second-placed cod (GBP 401.7 million, USD 554.3 million, EUR 452.9 million), unlike the whitefish, the salmon sales tonnage (52,245 metric tons – MT) and number of units sold (228.9 million) fell by 9.7 percent and 9 percent respectively.
These reductions were in line with a 15.6 percent increase in the average price of salmon at GBP 17.41 (USD 24.02, EUR 19.63) per kg.
In terms of salmon formats, 42,327 MT (-8.3 percent) or 189.5 million units (-8 percent) were sold in the chilled category, 4,370 MT (-21.1 percent) or 24.7 million units (-16.8 percent) were sold in ambient and frozen sales totaled 5,547 MT (-10.7 percent) or 14.7 million units (-6.8 percent).
Smoked salmon, valued at GBP 289.8 million (USD 399.8 million, EUR 326.8 million) for the 12-month period, experienced a 7.8 percent decline in volume to 11,093 MT with the number of units sold down 6.3 percent to 75.7 million. The average price of smoked salmon, meanwhile, increased by 14 percent to GBP 26.12 (USD 36.04, EUR 29.46) per kg.
The new data also finds that wild salmon sales fell 13.8 percent to 7,801 MT valued at GBP 92.6 million (USD 127.8 million, EUR 104.4 million), which was down 0.5 percent year-on-year, while the farmed salmon volume sold dropped 9 percent to 44,444 MT with the value up 5 percent to GBP 817.2 million (USD 1.1 billion, EUR 921.6 million).
Average prices for wild and farmed salmon increased to GBP 11.87 (USD 16.38, EUR 13.39) and GBP 18.39 (USD 25.37, EUR 20.74) per kg respectively.
