Salmon supplies hit by cold weather

UK - Salmon supplies are likely to suffer a dip over Easter due to the recent severe weather, a leading producer warned yesterday.

Colder than average water temperatures in Scotland and Scandinavia have delayed the harvest times for farmed salmon, according to Young's Seafood. A high global demand for fish, coupled with a drop in the availability of Chilean salmon, has put further pressure on European supplies.

The company, which supplies around 40% of the UK's farmed salmon market, said customers would not have problems finding salmon on shop shelves this weekend, but retailers could have problems buying in more than their pre-ordered allocations.

The UK market for fresh salmon is growing by around 26% per year. A spokesman for another of Scotland's largest fish farming companies, Marine Harvest, admitted the cold weather had created a challenge, but was confident that demands would be met.

Steve Bracken said: "The cold temperatures do affect growth, but we are confident we will be able to meet demand by grading our fish."

The cold spring weather has also hit high street sales across the retail spectrum. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said like-for-like sales were 1.4% lower in March than at the same stage last year.

Source: The Herald