Seafood industry overview

Seafood is a multi-billion pound industry in the UK. Four out of five households consume seafood at least once a month and total purchases of seafood in the UK exceeded £5 billion in 2008.

Catching

In 2008, the UK fishing industry had 6,573 vessels, a reduction of 18% since 1999. Most vessels are over 10m in length.

There were 12,761 fishermen in 2008, a reduction of 24% since 1999, although numbers have been steady since 2003. There were 5,749 fishermen in England, 5,392 based in Scotland, 995 in Wales and 625 in Northern Ireland.

In 2008, UK vessels landed 588,000 tonnes of seafood worth £629 million. This was a fall of 4% in volume and 3% in value compared to 2007.

In volume terms, the UK catch is spread equally between demersal, pelagic and shellfish species.  Shellfish, such as langoustine and scallops, account for almost half of all landings by value, followed by demersal species such as haddock, and then pelagic species, such as mackerel.

The top three ports, by volume, are all in Scotland - Peterhead, Lerwick and Fraserburgh, followed by the top English port of Brixham.

Exporting UK seafood

In the UK, we export most of the seafood we catch in our waters. This is because foreign seafood markets greatly value UK species, such as langoustine, crab and mackerel, while domestic consumers focus their purchases on a smaller range of species, such as cod, salmon and haddock.

In 2009, just under 478,300 tonnes of seafood, worth £1.16 billion, was exported from the UK.

The main export markets for the UK seafood are the Netherlands, France, Spain, the Irish Republic and the USA which between them accounted for 55% (by value) of the seafood exported from the UK.
-    mixed seafood for processing was the main export to the Irish Republic, Germany and the Netherlands
-    high value shellfish like langoustine, crab and scallops and exported to the French, Spanish and Italian markets
-    pelagics were destined mainly for the Russian, Nigerian and Ukrainian markets

Importing seafood

In 2009, a total of 718,700 tonnes of seafood, worth £2.17 billion, was imported into the UK.

The countries the UK receives imports from reflects our traditional tastes in seafood
-    cod, haddock and other white fish come from Iceland and the Faroe Islands,
-    salmon from Norway
-    S=salmon and pollock from the USA
-    cold water prawns from Denmark and Canada
-    tuna from Mauritius and the Seychelles
-    warm water prawns from Thailand, India and Bangladesh

Recently, imports of aquaculture species like warm water prawns from India and basa from Vietnam have increased.  

Processing

The 2008 Seafish survey of the processing sector found that the UK fish processing industry provides 14,700 full time jobs in 480 units.

Primary processing units continue to be the most prevalent type - 46% of all processing units undertake only primary processes.  Units which undertake only secondary processing account for only 12% of all units but employ almost 25% of the industry total.

Humberside has the highest number of processing units followed by Grampian. The South, Midlands and Wales has the third highest number of processing units followed by North England, and other areas in Scotland.

Primary processors are likely to source their materials within the UK with Grampian (19%) and Humberside (18%) the most likely sources.  An increasing number of mixed processors source their materials from outside the UK and the majority of this is imported from outside the EU (45%).

Processors sell their seafood products to wholesale, retail, foodservice and export markets, and face different demands depending on which they supply.

Retail sector

The UK retail market for seafood was worth over £2.85 billion in 2009 and has performed well over the past few years.  

The most popular species of seafood in retail is salmon, followed closely by tuna, cod, haddock and warm water prawns.  

In terms of trade outlets, supermarkets dominate the seafood retail market with over 87% share of spend.

There has been very little change in the make up of the seafood market in the last year. Fresh seafood still accounts for 56% of the market by value, while frozen makes up 27% and ambient 18%

In volume terms the market is still split roughly into thirds, although ambient has a slightly smaller share.

Foodservice

The foodservice sector covers a range of outlets including fish and chip shops, canteens, hotels and restaurants.

It is estimated that in 2009, consumers spent £2.8 billion on seafood from these "out of home" outlets.  This is made up of 1.15 billion servings of seafood.

Fried fish dominates the foodservice sector, with 33% of the sector share, followed by seafood sandwiches, such as prawn and tuna.

Whitefish, such as cod, haddock and pollock, is the most popular choice in foodservice, making up more than 80% of the total spend.