While U.K retailers have seen the total amount of seafood bought in stores decrease over the past year, there has been a strong upturn in the volume and value of haddock sold in the grocery channel.
For the 12 months ending 12 August 2017, the total volume of seafood sold in the retail channel amounted to 323,938 metric tons (MT), a decrease of 1.3 percent year-on-year, while the number of unit sales fell by 1.4 percent to less than 1.2 billion, according to the latest Nielsen ScanTrack data published by Seafish.
In terms of value, these sales amounted to more than GBP 3.2 billion (USD 4.2 billion, EUR 3.5 billion), which was up 3.2 percent compared with the previous 12 months and largely accounted for by a 4.5 percent increase in the average price paid for seafood products at GBP 9.90 (USD 13.08, EUR 10.84) per kg.
Total haddock sales over the period increased 4.4 percent in volume to 20,030 MT, achieving a value of almost GBP 202.5 million (USD 267.6 million, EUR 221.8 million) – also up 4.4 percent.
The number of haddock unit sales, meanwhile, increased by 2.7 percent to 64.9 million, and the average price paid by consumers decreased by 0.1 percent year-on-year to GBP 10.11 (USD 13.36, EUR 11.07) per kg.
In terms of product formats, chilled haddock dominated sales with a total value of GBP 143.6 million (USD 189.8 million, EUR 157.3 million), up 2.2 percent year-on-year. Frozen haddock followed with a value of almost GBP 59 million (USD 78 million, EUR 64.6 million), up 10 percent.
During the 12-month period, haddock was also the main whitefish contributor to the resurgent smoked seafood category with sales of almost 7,000 MT valued at GBP 82.3 million (USD 108.8 million, EUR 90.2 million), representing year-on-year increases of 3.4 percent and 3.6 percent respectively.
Overall, smoked seafood sales amounted to 40,240 MT with a value of GBP 555.4 million (USD 733.8 million, EUR 608.3 million), up 1.4 percent and 5 percent respectively. Within the category, smoked haddock’s performance was only bettered by smoked salmon with sales of 12,071 MT valued at GBP 288.9 million (USD 381.7 million, EUR 316.4 million).
