Young's Seafood owner: 25% of UK shoppers expect to eat less seafood as cost-of-living crisis hits

Consumers are making fundamental changes to their shopping and eating habits in order to combat runaway inflation, and seafood is likely to suffer as a result of these changes, according to a presentation from Sofina Foods, the parent company of seafood giant Young's.

Sofina Vice Chairman Simon Smith delivered a presentation at the Groundfish Forum in Seattle last week showing the volume of retail food and drink sales has declined 4 percent in the past 12 weeks in the UK. Meanwhile, the value of the sales grew by 4.8 percent over the same period.

While seafood prices have risen 7 percent on average, grocery prices overall have risen by 12 percent. Sofina expects larger increase to the cost of consumer staples such as poultry (up 15 percent), butter (up 23 percent) and pasta (up 30 percent) will put a huge squeeze on discretionary purchases such as seafood.

According to the survey, 24.7 percent of shoppers said they were likely to purchase less fresh fish as a result of price increases, while 16 percent said they would buy less frozen fish.

Almost 730,000 shoppers in the UK have dropped seafood from their basket in the last four weeks compared to the same period last year.

The figures from Sofina are consistent with the latest report from data and consulting firm Kantar that indicates that grocery inflation in the UK reached 13.9 percent in September, a record high since the company began tracking prices in 2008. This is expected to add £643 (€739/$722) to the average annual grocery bill.

Sofina Foods is one of Canada's largest food producers, supplying a diversified mix of proteins and brands to both the retail and foodservice sector. The group produces frozen seafood and poultry brand Janes -- primarily breaded and battered products. The company uses haddock, pollock, cod and sole in its line.