UK retailers shifting more volumes to warmwater shrimp

Warmwater shrimp sales at UK retailers grew 7.7 percent over the past 12 months as buyers turned away from increasingly expensive coldwater products.

Total warmwater sales reached £219.3 million (€287.5 million/$313.3 million) in the 52 weeks up to Dec. 5, according to Seafish, on a 5.3 percent volume increase to 13,276 metric tons.

The growth in part comes from the exorbitantly high prices for coldwater shrimp, which would appear to reaching the tolerance level for consumers.

“I suspect that warmwater shrimp sales have increased due to availability problems with coldwater shrimp -- quotas on coldwater shrimp have tightened, availability has been poor, and prices have increased significantly -- this has driven the warmwater market up,” Simon Smith, managing director at Icelandic Seachill, told IntraFish.

Coldwater