Seafood retail data and insight

This page has information on:

• Performance of seafood in retail
• Publications and data sets
• Seafood retail data collection

Performance of seafood in retail 

Seafood in retail boomed during the Covid-19 pandemic as people stockpiled frozen and ambient (tinned) products. However, performance of seafood in retail is in decline and below pre-Covid (2019) level.

Most of the value and volume of seafood sold in retail is driven by chilled products. Frozen and ambient products are back in decline following the lockdown boost.

Despite this, have particular tastes and very rarely diverge from the usual top five species. Although farmed species sold through retail is growing.

In 2021, UK consumers bought 425,600 tonnes of seafood worth £4.2 billion from supermarkets and other large multiple retailers. We do not have data for seafood bought directly from fishing vessels or through independent shops and fishmongers.

The top five species by volume were:

1. Salmon (75,000 tonnes)
2. Tuna (64,600 tonnes)
3. Cod (59,000)
4. Haddock (26,000 tonnes)
5. Warm water prawns (26,400 tonnes)

Chilled was the most popular segment (62% of value, 46% of volume. This was followed by frozen (25% of value, 33% of volume) then ambient (13% of value, 21% of volume).

Publications and data sets

Retail factsheets 

We produce annual factsheets looking at performance of seafood in retail by segment (chilled, frozen and ambient) and by popular species.

These are published throughout the year. We have listed the most recent factsheets below which include more recent data. You can find older factsheets using the search function at the top of the website.

Market Insight Portal

We provide more detailed data, trends, and insight relating to the UK seafood retail market. This content is for seafood businesses only and requires registration.

This enables seafood businesses to make informed decisions and devise strategies and approaches based on robust information.

Seafood retail data collection

For a full picture of seafood in retail, we share and analyse the data and reports that we receive from Nielsen. This includes a detailed look into the performance of seafood by:

• Sector;
• segment and,
• species.

We also acquire demographic data that allows us to understand who the seafood retail shopper is and where they are buying seafood from. We obtain this data on a four-weekly and quarterly basis.