Scottish oysters and mussels top the menu in Valentine's Day sales surge
Farms belonging to the Scottish Shellfish Marketing Group anticipate a sales surge somewhere in the region of four times the norm with around 140,000 oysters being snapped up in Valentine’s week, fuelled by the oyster’s close associations with romance. Mussel sales are expected to double over the period.
Stephen Cameron, managing director, said: “Every year at this time we see a significant boost in oyster and mussel sales, and we therefore have to plan our harvesting and distribution operations very carefully to ensure that we can meet such a high level of demand.
“This is different from the increase in sales we experience over Christmas where the rise in demand will typically occur over a couple of weeks or more. For Valentine’s Day, everybody wants to eat oysters on a single day - February 14th.
“Freshness is vital and this is why there is a very intense period of harvesting in the days just prior to Valentine’s Day."
