Bumper Christmas for fish retailers

Donal Hickey on the huge growth in fish consumption in Ireland.

SALES of smoked salmon in Ireland hit record levels at Christmas, all part of a continuing trend that sees more people turning to fish as a healthy food.

In the past half-century, fish consumption globally has doubled from an average of 8kg a person to 16kg. Seafood production is growing by 4% a year and though natural fish stocks are in decline and some are even threatened with extinction, the slack is taken up by farmed fish.