Farms belonging to the Scottish Shellfish Marketing Group are gearing up for record sales as people look for exciting alternatives to the traditional meal starters of smoked salmon and prawn cocktail.
“We are predicting a sales uplift of at least three times the norm in the week before Christmas,” says managing director, Stephen Cameron.
“It is an incredibly busy period for our farms as they harvest a large amount of oysters over a very short period to ensure that people can enjoy them on Christmas day.”
* "The popularity of oysters and mussels has soared in recent years" |
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managing director, Stephen Cameron.
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Output last year increased from around seven tonnes a month to over 12 tonnes during December, and Scottish Shellfish is predicting even higher sales this year with people putting credit crunch worries behind them as they celebrate in style.
Scottish Shellfish is also forecasting that sales of its supermarket-branded mussel-in-sauce products will double over the period.
“Christmas is an extremely important time for our member farms and we have in place a very careful marketing and logistical plan to ensure that we can harvest shellfish to meet the predicted demand,” says Stephen Cameron.
“The popularity of oysters and mussels has soared in recent years, and they are incredibly popular in restaurants and for eating at home. With convenience and health being key requirements for food today, shellfish tick all the right boxes.”
As well as UK multiple retailers and wholesale markets, oysters from Scottish Shellfish will also be winging their way to Switzerland to supply its leading supermarket chain.
The UK’s premier producer of finest quality shellfish, Scottish Shellfish was formed in 1992 when a number of farmers, who did not have the resources to supply the market successfully themselves, combined as a co-operative to remedy this issue.
Today the business supplies supermarkets, wholesalers and restaurants with the highest quality rope grown mussels and oysters farmed from the clean clear waters of sheltered sea lochs of the West coast and Northern Isles.
The group’s main product lines are rope-grown mussels and Pacific oysters, with Scottish Shellfish committed to providing only the freshest and tastiest products on the market.
