Price, quality, convenience- the new trends for Russian seafood market
A survey, conducted in late August by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM), asked 1,600 respondents aged 18 or older about their seafood preferences and buying habits.
The findings are mixed with good news and bad news for the seafood industry, as Seafood Source magazine describe the results. 73% of the population said they eat seafood at least once per week. Of that total, 42% of respondents said they eat fish several times a week, and an additional 2% said they eat seafood at least once every day. Only 6% of the respondents declared that they don't eat fish at all.
Nevertheless, 27% of the Russians have reduced the amount of fish purchased recently and only 11% increased their seafood buying. Of those who have reduced their spending, 38% mentioned higher prices and poor quality (36%) of the seafood as the main reasons for their decision.
Seafood consumption in Russia stands at around 3.5 million metric tons, or around 10.3 kilograms per person annually, but is still far below the recommendations provided by the country’s Ministry of Health, and much less than just five years ago, in 2013, when Russians ate an average of 22 kilograms of seafood each per year.
Kirill Rodin, the executive director of public opinion research at VCIOM, thinks that the spike in prices seen in the last few years has influenced the consumption, along with young consumers habits. Young shoppers favour fast food over cooking at home or they expect to cook a meal in less than 20 minutes.
"Young people don’t want to spend much time on cooking. They expect one meal to be prepared within 20 minutes. They don’t want big portions, they don’t need a package of 1.5 kilograms of fish any more. They need two times less which can be cooked for one meal", explained Polina Kirova, business development director of Rybset, a Russian seafood retail chain.
A ranking of the most popular seafoods purchased in Russia is topped by preserves (18%), followed by salt fish (12%), crab and crab sticks (10%), grilled fish (10%), frozen seafood (9%), caviar (9%), and chilled fish (8%).
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