Some growth in UK chilled salmon market

Siri Elise Dybdal

In the UK, the market have been somewhat challenging for seafood as a whole in 2013, according Karen Galloway, head of marketing at Seafish Industry Authority. She points out that total volumes for seafood are down slightly. “What we see is that there has been a decline in the frozen segment. However, there has been a volume growth in sales of fresh fish,” Galloway reveals.

She says that in this environment you would expect the chilled segment to be shrinking. But according to their figures, the total value for fresh fish has increased by three per cent. The volume is down two per cent. "The growth in the chilled market shows the complexity in consumer behaviour,” she says.

 When looking at the fresh/chilled salmon market increase, it is important to look at whether the consumer base is growing. According to figures on ‘basket spend’, it is evident that there has been a little increase in market penetration - there are more people buying salmon and they are buying it more frequently, she says. The figures show that the frequency that a consumer buys salmon has gone up from seven times a year to seven and a quarter.

“It may sound little, but it adds £16 million to the salmon market,” Galloway highlights.