EU sushi market at a crossroads

While some cities in Europe such as Paris and London are already “fully equipped,” the sushi movement is still making progress in secondary cities across Europe, and the Eastern European market still has a lot of potential, according to Alain Bailly, chief operating officer (COO) of Joii Sushi, a new sushi supply company based in the UK.

Joii Sushi actively started business in March this year and with a full team of sales people has become fully operational in the last two months, Bailly said.

The company’s European development is now in progress, and it has already entered markets in Denmark, Poland, The Czech Republiuc, and soon, Germany. Russia is also a "target city."

“There are a lot of people who are less exposed to the sushi movement, so there is still a large population who are starting to get sushi little by little,” Bailly said.

Quality matters

While sushi in the European market is still considered a bit of a luxury meal out, it is becoming moreaffordable and accessible for more people. However this doesn’t mean suppliers should scrimp on quality, Casper Prior, logistics and purchasing manager at Danish sushi chain Sticks‘n’ Sushi told IntraFish.

“Sushi has gone from a very luxurious product, whenpeople thought it was really expensive, to a little bit easier to buy,” Prior said.

“Now is a little bit more ‘every day.' Although still a little bit of a luxury to go and buy sushi, itis more OK to do it on a Thursday rather than just on a Friday or Saturdayso to speak.

Until recently, Denmark had seen a lot of cheaper, Chinese sushi restaurants offering “discount sushi”popping up, Prior said, but this trend has been going down lately.

The reasons for this are partly because the market has filled up, and partly because of the financial crisis.

“If people going to go to a restaurant they want tobe sure quality is good,” said Prior. “They don’t want to pay for cheap sushi. People are much more aware of the value of their money at the moment."

To cater for consumers, therefore, companies like Stick ‘n’ Sushi have invested in better-sized, better quality products.

When the crisis hit in 2008, Prior said Sticks ‘n’ Sushi increased the size of the shrimp it uses on nigiri products by three times, for example.

“We wanted to show [the consumer] the size is bigger, they are getting more for the value of the products," he said.

Sustainability and traceability of the fish used in the products also play an important part in Prior’s strategy, because people want to eat sushi "with a good tastein their mouths,” he said.

Creativity, diversity more important

But more than just a requirement for higher quality products, sushi suppliers also need to be a bit more creative and introduce diversity, Bailly told IntraFish.

“Sushi people will have to be more creative, many have copied what others are doing when there was a fast expansion of the market, and now most of the sushi outlets they just have the same offer,” Bailly said.

This is acceptable for the first three or four years, because people are still having a new experience but after several years “they’re waiting for something new,” he said.

According to Bailly, the main challenge to make sure that sushi is “not just a five-to-10 year movement” and that it has the capacity to develop new offers.

“It is important that new products come on the menu, there is too much salmon on the menu at the moment, and a [there is a] need to introduce diversity,” Bailly said.

Prior agrees with Bailly and thinks more flexibility is needed in the market place, instead of the “old-fashioned ways.”

Sticks ‘n’ Sushi is routinely trying to develop newproducts Prior said.

“We increase the quality of the products, increasing the size of the shrimp for nigiri, but also we are trying to go more local – there is a lot of nori seaweed in Europe so we are trying to see if we can use that instead,” he said.

The company is also trying to introduce more traditional, old Japanese products such as "Uni" – sea urchin -- for example.

“We want to see if we can get Danish people to eat that, we just put oysters on, which is something we haven’t been dealing a lot with, so we are trying to push customers to try new products," he said.