UK FISH CONSUMPTION TRENDS

UK fish consumption trends. Read Fish Focus’ latest publication focusing on seafood processing.

A note by Tony Mackay, Economist

Fish consumption in the UK has fallen in recent years and that trend seems likely to continue over the next few years without some radical changes.

Seafish, the UK Government body which oversees the industry, recently published a report which stated that fish consumption had fallen by an average -3% per year during the last decade.  The reasons for that included the slowdown in the economy, average incomes falling in real terms and relatively high increases in fish prices.

Another very important factor is that young people now consume much less fish than older ones. That means that average fish consumption falls as older people die.

I recently found some very interesting statistics on the website of the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, which gives average annual fish consumption estimates for consumers in over 200 countries.  The UK is near the bottom of the list, with an annual average of 17.83 kilograms (kg) per person.

Other countries included:

• Iceland 85 kg per year
• Norway 50
• Europe average 27
• USA 22
• UK

The Seafish report states that in the UK average fish consumption is only one portion per week. The meat consumption average is 15!

The report also highlights a trend away from consuming fresh fish in favour of “ready meals” (eg for the microwave). It states that seafood retail sales fell by -13.6% in the 2021-24 period.

These trends seem likely to continue over the next few years, so it could be a challenging period for the UK fishing industry.

Image credit: Seafish