Hard to find fresh fish - most of it is defrosted. Like this all over the UK?

[ParentOfOne]

I have noticed that most fish found at supermarkets is not fresh but defrosted.
It's not a matter of budget: Lidl, Aldi, Tesco, Sainsbury and even Waitrose all have mostly defrosted fish. Even at the fish counter at Waitrose most of it is actually defrosted!

Is it like this everywhere in the country, or just in London?

At this point I wonder if I should just buy frozen fish at Iceland.

Is my recollection wrong or till a few years ago it didn't use to be like this?

I wonder if it's to do with fishing becoming harder after Brexit, or if it's something similar to shrinkflation: instead of increasing the price of fresh fish they sell it frozen?

Chat GPT says this -

Has the share of previously frozen fish increased?
Yes — evidence suggests it has increased over the past 5–10 years, for several reasons:

1. Supply chain globalisation
2. The UK imports ~70–80% of the seafood it consumes. A large share comes from outside Europe (Asia, South America), making freezing the only practical preservation method.
3. For example, cod and haddock increasingly come from frozen blocks processed in China/Eastern Europe and then re-exported to the UK.
4. Sustainability and logistics
5. Freezing at sea reduces spoilage, extends shelf life, and allows for centralised processing. Retailers prefer it for consistency and to reduce waste.
6. Cost pressures
7. Frozen bulk imports are cheaper to transport and store than fresh-chilled air-freight fish. With inflation and tighter margins, retailers rely more on previously frozen fish.
8. Regulation & labelling
9. Since 2014 (EU rules carried into UK law), all fish sold at retail must state if it was previously frozen. That has made the practice more transparent — and consumers may not realise how often “fresh” counters are actually defrosted products.

@Maddy70 It's always been the case nothing to do with Brexit

Not true. it hasn't always been the case. I can't speak for the whole country, but in the London area before Brexit you could find fresh fish in supermarkets. Now it's almost impossible, most of it is defrosted. It didn't use to be like this before Brexit

1. Since 2014 (EU rules carried into UK law), all fish sold at retail must state if it was previously frozen. That has made the practice more transparent — and consumers may not realise how often “fresh” counters are actually defrosted products.

Great example. In the period 2014 - 2020, ie before Brexit but when it was already compulsory to show clearly if fish had been defrosted, it was much easier to find fresh, not defrosted fish in London's supermarkets. Now it's almost impossible

We went to a fish shop in a Northumbrian fishing port where you could see boats being unloaded. When we asked whether the sea bass was local they told us it was from Greece!

It's also much harder to find variety now in the supermarkets, fresh unsmoked mackerel, trout etc used to be cheaper than salmon or cod but now hard to find and expensive when you do

I do live by the coast and can go and buy from the sheds but they're only open mornings and I'm often at work and they don't sell trout anyway

There's a couple of good fishmongers that deliver to my house, but obviously expensive.

It is true that the fresh fish in supermarkets isn't. They don't exactly scream that fact from the rooftops do they? It's kind of a rip off really but I do understand why.

You need to find an independent fishmongers. We have a fishmonger market stall that is open most days. They have seasonal fish, e.g. Cornish sardines, which I like. At least I can ask them questions and make it known what I want, if they don't stock it.

Brits haven't changed their preferences, which is the problem because almost nothing Brits will eat can be caught locally any more. Because of global warming cod and haddock fisheries are moving north by about ten miles a year and within UK waters they have been fished to virtual extinction anyway. Most Atlantic cod is caught in Norway or Russia and the latter are now subject to sanctions too, which partly explains the price. Higher prices equal less tolerance for wastage.

The 'big five' (cod, haddock, tuna, prawn and salmon) account for more than 90% of fish consumption in the UK, and it is virtually all imported. Whilst salmon is farmed here it is so expensive that most of what we eat is imported while we export UK salmon to far richer countries willing to pay premium prices for Scottish. Fish caught in UK waters is nearly all exported because Brits won't eat things like horse mackerel.

Another thing that doesn't help is the UK's preference for portion-sized fillets rather than whole fish and its reluctance to invest. If you want to fillet a salmon or sea bass by hand it is cheaper to do it in Poland or Greece, and it is cheaper to portion a cod in Iceland (the country, not the supermarket) using a machine which scans the shape and density of the fish and then laser-cuts it into 90g pieces with little waste. Once you start doing that then you have to freeze it to get it to the UK. And don't get me started on the economies of scale that an ocean-going super trawler-factory can achieve compared to the UK's quaint fleet.