There is expected to be no great movement in the overall market size of fish and shellfish in 2015. While volume sales are forecast to slip by 0.6% year on year, value sales are expected to edge up by 0.5% to £3,409 million. However, this masks contrasting performances between the different formats. While frozen is struggling, chilled fish/shellfish – which dominates spend – continues to post strong value growth, and is expected to be the main beneficiary of the rise in consumer spending. Meanwhile, a significant drop in average prices within the ambient segment has helped to keep volume sales from falling, but at the expense of a 6% decline in value.

Covered in this report

This report discusses the retail sales of seafood for in-home consumption. Seafood is defined for the purposes of this report to include fish (fin fish) and shellfish (including crustaceans), whether chilled, frozen or ambient. This report includes plain, as well as processed and ready-to-cook products.

The word ‘ambient’ is used to refer to the segment traditionally dominated by canned fish, which now also includes ambient fish in tubs, pouches and jars.

Excluded from this report (with the exception of Defra figures for average fish consumption) are seafood-based ready meals and sales of seafood through the catering sector, eg fish and chip shops. Sales of sushi are also excluded.

The market size in this report differs from the Mintel Market Sizes market size for the category because the Mintel Market Sizes figure includes sales of ready meals and meal centres, which this report does not include.

It also differs from the Mintel Market Sizes market size for the category because the Mintel Market Sizes figure excludes sales of chilled plain whole, filleted or portioned fish, which this report includes.

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