New survey also sees upward trend in quality produce in salmon-loving France.
According to numbers obtained by fish processing trade organisation Entreprises du traiteur frais (ETF), quality rather than quantity still reigns supreme.
Reported in lsa-conso, the survey found that 9 out of 10 French people buy it regularly. Around the Christmas season, 63% are already sure they will buy it.
The survey was conducted from September 20 to 30, 2019 among a representative sample of 1,004 French people aged 18 and over.
In 2018, volume sales fell by 2.9%, but it also rose by 3.5 per cent in value, with sold 30,000 tonnes sold in 2018.
While 24,000 tonnes of salmon are prepared and smoked in France by 30 businesses, the survey showed that only a small percentage (14%) know this. 68 per cent of its fish came from Norway, 27 per cent from Scotland and 3 per cent from Ireland.
As Christmas approaches a new a new logo will appear stating that the fish was smoked in France from the country’s biggest brands such Labeyrie, Delpeyrat, King Fjord, Guyader, Moulin de la Marche, Saumextra and le Borvo.
In 2018, France’s main smokehouses decided to commit themselves to a quality charter that took fifteen years to draft in a bid to distinguish their own salmon from Europe’s leading smoked salmon producers, Poland.
The results from the survey showed that the logo would encourage 74 per cent of French consumers to buy the product.
