While the amount of seafood sold in U.K. retail has continued to decline over the past year, shoppers have been buying more chilled whitefish, with haddock among the big performers.
For the 12 months ending 16 July 2016, the total volume of seafood sold in the retail channel amounted to 328,822 metric tons (MT), a decrease of 0.7 percent year-on-year, while the number of unit sales also fell 0.7 percent to 1,192,445, according to the latest Nielsen ScanTrack data published by Seafish.
In terms of value, these sales amounted to GBP 3.1 billion (USD 4.1 billion, EUR 3.7 billion), a decrease of 0.1 percent year-on-year.
Some 19,090 MT of haddock was sold in retail during the 12-month period for GBP 193.6 million (USD 258.6 million, EUR 231.5 million), representing increases of 4.1 percent and 3.9 percent, respectively. It was, though, haddock’s performance in the chilled retail category that drove this performance, with the volume and value up by 7 percent and 5.6 percent respectively to 11,722 MT and GBP 139.9 million (USD 186.8 million, EUR 167.3 million).
In frozen, retail sales fell slightly to 7,367 MT, worth GBP 53.7 million (USD 71.7 million, EUR 64.2 million).
Average retail prices have fallen in both categories during the 12-month period, with chilled declining to GBP 11.94 (USD 15.95, EUR 14.28) per kg, and frozen down to GBP 7.28 (USD 9.72, EUR 8.70) per kg.
Also following the whitefish growth trend, cod sales increased 6.5 percent in volume to 46,393 MT and 5.6 percent in value to GBP 374.5 million (USD 500.2 million, EUR 447.8 million); seabass sales amounted to 3,312 MT with a value of GBP 51.7 million (USD 69.1 million, EUR 61.8 million) – representing rises of 11.1 percent and 17.5 percent; pangasius sales totaled 5,716 MT worth GBP 43.9 million (USD 58.6 million million, EUR 52.5 million) – up 15.9 percent and 14.9 percent; and seabream sales totaled 1,026 MT worth GBP 15.2 million (USD 20.3 million, EUR 18.2 million) – up 9.5 percent and 13.5 percent.
Sales of pollock, however, fell by 20.9 percent year-on-year to 24,444 MT with a value of GBP 108.2 million (USD 144.5 million, EUR 129.4 million), down 24.3 percent.
