Seafood servings from fish and chip shops fell by 15% in 2023

Seafood servings from fish and chip shops fell by 15% in 2023 despite foodservice seeing a 6.4% increase in servings overall, according to a new report by Seafish. 

Seafood in Numbers 2023 states that the total GB seafood foodservice market is worth £5.9bn, an increase of 39% on the previous year. In volume terms it stands at 138,368 tonnes, an increase of 6.4%.  

According to the report, the increase is driven by an uplift in seafood servings in pubs (+28%), workplace and education (+17%), travel and leisure (+12%) and quick service restaurants (+8%).

While fish and chip shops saw a drop in seafood servings to 18,060 tonnes, full service restaurants also experienced a decline of 4% to 21,218 tonnes.  

In retail, UK seafood sales grew to £4.3 billion in value, a 5% uplift from the previous year. However, volume sales fell by 2% to 381,371 tonnes, which the report believes is a result of consumers continuing to feel the pinch of the cost-of-living crisis.

According to the report, the UK exported £1,730 million worth of seafood, nearly 12,000 tonnes less than in 2022. However, the value of exports increasing by £8 million compared with the previous year. France was the largest market by both volume and value.

In addition, the UK fishing fleet caught a total of 680,000 tonnes of fish and shellfish in 2023. While most of this fish was landed into the UK some was also landed directly into overseas countries such as Norway and Denmark.

 To accompany the launch of this year’s report, Seafish will host a webinar on January 16th 2025. This free event will be lead by the Economics, Insight and Advice team who will present key findings of the report, discuss the practical implications of the data for businesses and other industry stakeholders, and offer a “behind the scenes” look at the process of data collection.