Salmon tops seafood league in the UK

Salmon is top of the pops with 49,000 tonnes shifted in the past 12 months worth a massive £607 million. Seafish said salmon’s popularity has rocketed over the years thanks to a huge increase in the farmed variety.

Tuna comes in at number two with tinned sales of the store cupboard staple accounting for its success.

At number three is the iconic cod, closely followed by haddock at number four.  These whitefish are the fish of choice from the local chippy with cod popular in England and haddock top pick in Scotland.

Karen Galloway, market insight manager at Seafish, said the top ten showed that Britons prefer mild tasting traditional favourites.

“Fish is a tasty and healthy protein and we should copy our European neighbours and make the most of the wide variety of seafood on offer in the UK,” she said.

A recent survey undertaken by Seafish revealed that more than eight out of ten Britons – 83 per cent– described seafood as healthy but only about one third manage to eat the recommended two portions of fish a week.

Britain’s seafood top 10:

Value in £millions                      Volume in tonnes SALMON   607.3                                49,078 TUNA 356.2                                      74,646 COD   298.7                                     38,294 HADDOCK   208.8                              22,591 WARMWATER PRAWNS 178.4              14,244 COLDWATER PRAWNS 164.7               17,448 MACKEREL  92.0                                15,213 POLLACK   66.6                                1 3,104 SCAMPI   55.8                                     5,728 TROUT   41.3                                      4,389