The value and volume of warmwater shrimp products sold in U.K. retail for at-home consumption has followed an increasing sales trend over the past three years, outperforming the overall seafood market. However, it continues to be a very different story for coldwater shrimp.
According to the latest Nielsen ScanTrack data supplied by the United Kingdom's Seafish Authority, shrimp sales for the 52 weeks ending 6 October, 2018, totaled 31,418 metric tons (MT) worth GBP 446.4 million (USD 571.6 million, EUR 501.5 million). While this volume was down 1.7 percent, the value was up by 0.8 percent.
Unit sales, meanwhile, increased by 1.3 percent to 146.1 million, with the average price per unit falling slightly to GBP 3.06 (USD 3.92, EUR 3.44).
The growth in unit sales was led by warmwater shrimp – up 5.5 percent year-on-year to almost 87.8 million units. In tonnage and value terms, these sales equated to 18,778 MT (up 1 percent) and GBP 278.2 million (USD 356.2 million, EUR 312.5 million) (up 3.4 percent).
Over the 12 months, warmwater shrimp achieved an average price of GBP 14.82 (USD 18.97, EUR 16.65) per kg or GBP 3.17 (USD 4.06, EUR 3.56) per unit.
In contrast, the number of coldwater shrimp products sold over the same period fell 4.3 percent to 58.3 million units. The total volume sold slipped by 5.4 percent to 12,640 MT, while the value declined by 3.2 percent in value to GBP 168.2 million (USD 215.3 million, EUR 189 million).
Seafish’s figures find that the average price of coldwater shrimp increased by 2.2 percent per kilogram to GBP 13.31 (USD 17.04, EUR 14.95) and 1.1 percent per unit to GBP 2.88 (USD 3.69, EUR 3.24).
More than GBP 313.7 million (USD 401.6 million, EUR 352.4 million) worth of warmwater and coldwater shrimp (combined) were sold in the chilled retail category during the 12-month period, a decrease of 0.5 percent year-on-year. Frozen sales amounted to GBP 132.8 million (USD 170 million, EUR 149.2 million), up four percent year-on-year.
