reLAKSation 519
Going down: It was of no real surprise to us at Callander McDowell that the latest fish and seafood consumption from the United States has shown a slight fall. Most news services have described US consumption as flat but Seafood Source does acknowledge the reality that consumption has fallen – again.
Total average consumption now stands at 15.8lbs per head, down 0.2lbs from the figure last year and according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the lowest since consumption peaked at 16.6lbs per head in 2004. The difference of 0.8lbs may not be a significant percentage of total consumption but must be a worrying sign that consumption trends have changed, especially as consumption appears to be also faltering in countries such as UK and Japan.
There does not seem to have been much discussion as to why consumption is falling but the news that the value of the seafood consumed has risen may suggest that higher prices may have affected consumption. However, whilst prices have risen recently, it doesn’t explain the underlying downward trend.
We are not aware of the demographics of US fish consumers but the indication from elsewhere is that falling consumption may be linked to a shift in the average age of consumers. It is well known that in a number of different countries most fish is consumed by older age groups. It is possible that as these old consumers pass on, they are not been replaced by fish consuming younger age groups. Younger consumers seem to eat much less fish and whilst it was once thought that their fish consumption would increase as they grow older, it does not seem to be what has happened. The likely explanation is an affinity with convenience food rather than the experience of buying fresh fish. The solution to this decline is an increased industry awareness of the needs of such consumers rather than continuing to focus on the type of products that younger consumers avoid.
However, the declining consumption trend may not be universal. Seafood News. com report that by comparison, Germany is showing increased consumption with about 13.3lbs per head during 2010. The actual increase is unclear but whole fish equivalent is 15.7kg per head against 15.1Kg for 2007 according to NOAA data. The German Fish Information Centre says that fish were once only eaten at Lent but consumption has spread throughout the year as popularity has increased. Yet, this good news must be tempered by the knowledge that only 8% of German fish sales are fresh. Twenty six percent of sales are of canned and marinated products especially a German favourite of marinated herring.
There seems to be a dearth of information regarding fresh fish consumption so perhaps any definite conclusions as to consumer behaviour may yet be somewhat premature. We, at Callander McDowell, suspect that the overall picture might be of bigger concern.
Sushi snack: Whilst consumption of fresh fish served in traditional ways may be on the decline, the Daily Mail reports that sushi is now selling faster than sandwiches and is set to become one of the UK’s favourite snacks. Sales of sushi have increased by 21% in the past year according to AC Nielsen.
Regular readers of reLAKSation will be aware that we, at Callander McDowell are not convinced that sushi will be at the forefront of the revolution to bring salmon to a wider audience. Despite this latest news, the picture of sushi consumption is not so clear. Firstly although the headline suggests that sushi is now outselling sandwiches, the reality is a little different. The data from supermarket giant Tesco indicates that sushi is not actually outselling all sandwiches but just a couple of specific flavours. These are ploughman’s (cheese pickle and salad) and tuna and cucumber.
According to the British Sandwich Week website, a third of sandwiches consumed in Britain are made with chicken whilst sandwiches made with egg or ham are in greater demand. The top five sandwich fillings for 2010 are chicken, cheese, ham, egg, prawn. Whilst ploughman’s sandwiches are made with cheese, there are plenty of other cheese combinations including cheese and tomato, cheese and onion, cheese and pickle and mixed cheese. What this shows is that ploughman’s and tuna and cucumber are not by any imagination, the best sellers and thus sushi has still a long way to go before outselling sandwiches in the UK.
It should also be mentioned that whilst salmon is used in sushi, most lunchtime packs contain no salmon at all and are either vegetarian or made with canned tuna. This is purely to keep the price down to a competitive level. Packs of sushi made with salmon tend to be expensive at the moment and not really a competitive lunch time option.
Much of the promotion regarding sushi consumption seems to originate in Norway, which is of course of no surprise. The widespread availability of fresh fish means that sushi is the simpler choice. The Norwegian Seafood Export Council recently publicised making sushi at home and last month, chefs beat the world record for putting together a mosaic made from sushi at the Bodo/Glimt foodball stadium. The design of the mosaic was the badge of the football club. We cannot see such an event taking place in the UK.
Clearly sushi has a different place and perception in the Norwegian marketplace. It must be of concern to hear that the Norwegian food inspectorate has closed down nine sushi restaurants around Oslo. The last thing that anyone would want is for consumers to be deterred from eating sushi because of the actions of just a handful of sushi restaurants who have not followed basic hygiene rules.
Sushi certainly has its place in the consumption mix for salmon. We just wonder whether we might miss other opportunities if the focus is targeted too much in one direction!
Mersey beat: The River Mersey is usually associated with the city of Liverpool but less well-known is that before the Mersey reaches Liverpool it passes through Manchester’s southern suburbs, not that far from our own offices. This week, the Manchester Evening News reports the increasing appearance of salmon in the river. The Mersey is in fact one of only a handful of post industrial rivers that is being naturally re-colonised by salmon. This is distinct from rivers like the Tyne that has been restocked with hatchery-bred salmon.
Salmon have been found in the River Mersey since 1999 so their presence is not actually news. What is news is the origin of the fish that have now made their home in the river. Salmon are renowned for returning to the rivers in which they were born so it had been assumed that the fish had found their way from other neighbouring rivers such as the Ribble or Dee but this has not been the case. Genetic research has found that most of the salmon have travelled from much further away. The River Mersey is in the North West of England, two hundred miles north of London, yet salmon have been identified as coming from stock found in rivers in France, whilst other have been traced back to Scottish rivers. Researchers have no answer to why these salmon have travelled so far form their home rivers but plan to do more research to find out.
Why these findings are of interest is that those in charge of managing Scottish stocks of salmon make much about protecting the genetic integrity of iconic Scottish salmon. This is usually the basis of a veiled attack on the salmon farming industry whose salmon, wild fish interests view as being very different to those found in Scottish rivers. They argue that escapes of farmed salmon will dilute the genetic makeup of Scottish stocks yet increasingly this seems to be a doubtful claim. As we mentioned in a previous reLAKSation, Pink salmon from Russian rivers have found their way into the River Tweed. It would make sense if salmon populations mixed naturally to improve their genetic makeup. Clearly, if each river system had its own stock that only bred with fish from the same river, populations would eventually become inbred. Genetic variability is the key to future survival and clearly this occurs regardless of the views of the wild fishing fraternity.
We, at Callander McDowell, remain puzzled at the claims made in the interests of salmon conservation, (better known as angling). Farmed salmon are always referred to as fat, lazy fish that bear little resemblance to their wild counterparts, yet at the same time, as soon as these indolent individuals escape, usually as the result of unforeseen accidents, they immediately go rushing off to have sex with the first wild fish that they encounter!