Latest UK Seafood Trade Data

In the 12 months to June 2025, the UK seafood trade was shaped by increased seafood consumption and shifts in supply availability of key farmed and wild caught species. New UK trade agreements, policy developments and evolving US tariffs also began to shape seafood trade over this period and into the near future.

Seafood consumption

Seafood sales in the UK retail sector continued to rise above levels a year ago as seafood inflation falls below the rate of CPI for food and non-alcoholic beverages. Growing shopper confidence drove higher sales of premium chilled seafood products. However, consumers were eating seafood out of home less often as foodservice servings declined. More on UK seafood consumption at Seafish.

Abroad, China remained both a key market for and a major supplier of UK seafood. US tariffs have reportedly redirected Chinese whitefish exports toward European markets, while the domestic seafood demand within China continued to grow rapidly. China became the fastest-growing market for Norwegian seafood during this period, reflecting deepening consumer interest in imported seafood products.

Trade agreements and policy developments

The UK government released its new trade strategy, setting out priorities for market access and supply chain resilience in 2025. A key commitment was the creation of a Supply Chain Centre to map and analyse risk in critical supply chains of sensitive sectors such as food. It aims to help traders manage risks from geopolitical, logistical and environmental shocks, emphasising co-creating solutions.

Although not specifically mentioning seafood, the strategy implies importers and exporters could benefit from earlier government warning on disruptions and improved support for diversifying markets and strengthening logistics resilience. However, it also implies greater reporting, traceability and data-sharing expectations.

Negotiations on a new UK-EU "reset" agreement. signalled progress on wider trade cooperation to ease barriers in exporting seafood products from Great Britain to the EU and Northern Ireland. The plan to establish a UK–EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Zone aims to remove routine export health certificates to reduce paperwork and associated costs, which have continued to hinder shellfish and demersal exports.

However, from 2026 there will be new compliance requirements for exporters as the EU introduces stricter IUU (Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated) fishing requirements. UK exporters will need to provide additional information on catch certificates to continue accessing EU markets. Businesses can prepare early by reviewing documentation processes. Seafood exporters can access regulatory guidance and sign up to regulation updates at Seafish.

In April 2025, the UK secured additional market access for live shellfish exports to Vietnam including lobster and brown crab. Vietnam is a high-potential market with a per capita seafood consumption around 37kg per person per year and this deal is estimated to generate £20 million for the seafood industry over the next five years according to the Shellfish Association of Great Britain.

Existing free trade agreements with Vietnam and South Korea continued to benefit both importers and exporters of shellfish through reduced tariffs while, negotiations to finalise a UK–Canada Free Trade Agreement resumed during this period.

Protectionist measures overseas, such as tariff changes, continued to shape conditions for the UK seafood industry, bringing about volatility. Following the introduction of broad ‘reciprocal’ tariffs on imported goods to the United States from April 2025, the UK secured a 10% tariff rate on its exports to the US. This improved the competitiveness for UK seafood products entering the US market.

At the same time, higher US tariffs on major suppliers of warm water prawns and tuna made the UK a more attractive alternative destination for those exporters. Still, the adjustment in global trade patterns has been slow because US importers increased orders ahead of tariff changes. Wider protectionist measures and geopolitical tensions have continued to cause uncertainty and volatility in food supply chains.

The UK’s Food security report published at the end of 2024 identified long-term risks to the nation’s food security. Vulnerabilities included an overly high dependence on imports to meet consumer demands for seafood as well as climate change risks to the distribution, and abundance of commercial important species.

Supply chain changes and challenges

Import supply remained constrained by the decreased availability of Atlantic cod globally. The joint Russian-Norwegian Arctic Fisheries Working Group recommended a 14% reduction in the 2026 Barents Sea cod catch compared to 2025 levels. However, geopolitical tensions between Russia and Norway threaten the joint management framework for cod and haddock stocks, following suspicions of espionage by Russian fishing vessels.

In direct opposition to the joint advice, Russia's Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (VNIRO) proposed increasing the Barents Sea cod quota for 2026, raising concerns about the sustainability and coordination of Arctic fisheries management.

Other supply chain shocks in the first half of 2025 included unstable global transport and logistic costs. Red Sea shipping insurance rates reportedly doubled amid ongoing security concerns, while trucking and logistics operations in the EU faced persistent labour shortages and elevated operational costs. Alternatively, Asia-Pacific is the largest and fastest growing cold-chain regional market as demand increases for perishable goods like seafood. Overall, these factors continue to create volatility and cost pressures for international seafood trade.

In terms of aquaculture supply, both Scotland and Norway increased production of Atlantic salmon over this period as survival and growth rates improve. Higher availability of supply contributed to downward pressure on salmon prices for markets at home and abroad.

In wild capture species, Northeast Atlantic mackerel quota declined in 2025. Lower catch availability for coastal states including the UK pushed up prices for one of the most commercially important species. Supply and price pressures expected to deepen with further reductions in total allowable catch advised for 2026.

The overall volume of fish and shellfish landed into UK ports by the catching sector increased, though performance varied significantly by species. Shellfish landings showed a mixed picture, with recorded growth in nephrops, whelks, and scallops landings, while landings of crabs, clams, and cuttlefish declined. Check out insight and research at Seafish for more on fishing data and supply chain analysis.

Total UK seafood import value increased by £185m (+4.9%) to £3.97bn in the year ending June 2025, the highest nominal value of any period in the past five years. However, adjusting for inflation, import value has fallen £100m (-2.5%) over five years (5y CAGR of -0.5%).

Annual import growth was driven by increased supply of tuna, salmon, shrimp and prawns. Supply of wild-caught whitefish and other seafood products continued to decline. Farmed whitefish is the only species group where the import supply was higher than the levels five years ago.

Import supply increased from most top exporters apart from the EU (-6.2%) and the Faroe Islands (-5.8%). Salmon imports declined from both markets as greater volumes were imported from Norway (+15.3%) and Canada (+114.2%). Norway increased salmon production during this period, strengthening its position as the UK's primary salmon supplier.

The live weight price of imported fish and shellfish rose by £0.07 per kilo (+1.9%), indicating continued inflation in the underlying cost of imported seafood supply. While price pressures continued, seafood inflation in retail (+2.2%) sat below CPI for food and non-alcoholic beverages (+4.5%) in June 2025.

Whitefish contributed strongly to overall seafood import price inflation. Price pressures in cod and haddock were caused by lower global supply availability following quota cuts in key fisheries.

However, import prices fell below prices a year-ago for salmon (-11.0%), tuna (-3.0%), and Alaska pollock (-6.5%) as the three species contributed negatively to overall seafood price inflation.

Seafood sales in UK retail continued to rise, particularly for salmon, tuna, and warmwater prawns. More premium products drove growth in sales, as indicated by performance in the chilled category, suggesting returning shopper confidence.

However, retail sales declined for budget whitefish options and cod, reflecting both supply constraints and shifting consumer preferences toward premium and farmed species.