Last updated: 3 July, 2024 @ 18:15
An annual report which looks at the UK seafood industry has revealed few surprises in terms of home consumption of seafood.
The Seafood in Numbers 2022 report, by Seafish, reveals trends across the seafood industry in the UK, including imports, exports, fishing, processing and consumption.
Whopping seafood exports
The data for 2022 shows that the UK fishing fleet caught 618,759 tonnes of fish that year.
Depressingly, a whopping 80% of that volume was exported.
The report also reveals that seafood bought in retail outlets in 2022 declined, a fact attributed to the cost-of-living crises.
Statistics that shame
The top five species landed across UK ports in terms of volume were Mackerel (91,886t), Herring (48,783t), Haddock (32,919t), Scallops (28,416t) and Langoustine (28,234t).
However, the top five species in terms of seafood eaten at home, including from imports, were found to be Tuna (69,481t), Salmon (66,615t), Cod (51,461t), Pollack (31,672t) and Warm Water Prawns (25,553t).
Shamefully, for people living on an island, surrounded by the sea, there’s not a Gurnard, Sardine, Spider Crab or Cockle in sight.
Read the report
The findings from the report can be found on the Seafish website in the form of a ‘interactive web experience’.