The seafood market in the UK is estimated to be worth almost £5 billion, according to recent research by the Sea Fish Industry Authority (Seafish).
Over the last year Seafish has been working to establish exactly what the total value of the seafood market is in the UK and what the values through the principal routes of foodservice and retail are. The findings place the seafood market in the UK as having an annual consumer value of approximately £4.8 billion.
"This is the most comprehensive study into the value of the seafood industry that we've ever carried out," explains Ceara Nevin, market insight manager at Seafish.
"Our previous studies have valued the seafood industry as producing around £3 billion worth of seafood on an annual basis. The revision to nearly £5 billion comes from a better understanding of the foodservice sector and the inclusion of farmed and canned seafood into the survey data."
Seafish evaluated a variety of different techniques and data sources to arrive at these findings. This included import and landing statistics, evaluation of the supply chains for individual seafood species, research and telephone studies on foodservice, and data provided by agencies.
The study divided the basic supply of seafood in the UK into four main categories. Fish landed in the UK by the UK fishing fleet accounts for 19 per cent, while UK aquaculture, including salmon, trout, marine finifish and shellfish, accounts for around 15 per cent. Over 62 per cent of supplies into the UK come form imports and 3.5 per cent come from fish landed by foreign vessels in the UK.
The country exports almost £0.9 billion worth of seafood annually.
"We estimate that between half and two thirds of seafood landed in the UK is exported and the majority of seafood that we consume is imported."
The seafood processing sector has an output of around £3.2 billion annually and provides supplies to the export market or the retail and foodservice sectors.
