London Seafood Expo 2010

London Seafood Expo 2010 – the premier seafood show in UK, scheduled to be held at Earls Court, Brompton Hall, London from 2-4 February, is tipped to be a promising event for seafood industry professionals around the globe, looking for import/export opportunities, renewing old contacts and also make new contacts.

UK has been a net importer of seafood in both volume and value terms. In 2008, it imported 780 600 mt of seafood worth £2.2 billion while it exported some 415 000 mt worth £1.0 billion.

The ten most common species found in the UK retail markets are salmon, tuna, cod, haddock, warm water prawns, cold water prawns, mackerel, Pollock, scampi and trout reflecting their traditional taste, but only four of them (salmon, haddock, mackerel and scampi) are produced in any great volume in the UK. Cod, haddock and other white fish are imported from Iceland and the Faroe Islands, salmon from Norway and USA, cold water prawns from Denmark, tuna from Mauritius and warm water prawns from Thailand. China plays an important role as the destination of choice for bulk primary processing (eg transforming whole fish into fillets), which is then re-shipped back to the UK or Europe either for secondary processing or onward sale.