German sales of frozen meat ready-meals have declined significantly after the recent horsemeat scandal, with consumers dodging to fish.
According to the latest consumer index report by GfK, sales of frozen lasagne and cannelloni at German supermarkets fell by 15.2 percent -- with frozen fish ready-meals picking up their market share.
"It is quite obvious and clear to see that consumers have moved to the frozen fish meals," Wolfgang Adlwarth, marketing manager at GfK Germany, told IntraFish.
In February, sales of frozen fish ready-meals tripled, and demand in March was twice as high compared to figures from the previous year.
Jürgen Marggraf, head of operations at German frozen food company Frosta, said the horse meat scandal was "by no way positive" for meat ready-meal producers. "It will take three to four months to go back to normal levels," he told IntraFish, adding beef -- "or horse meat" -- lasagne was probably the only category which saw a drop in sales.
"We haven't seen a decrease in sales for our ready meals," he said. "The horse meat scandal is already old news for us."
When asked about expectations for the coming months, Adlwarth said after a certain time -- when the news about the scandal in the mainstream media trail off -- consumers will "swingback to normal behavior."
"But I don't want to rule out that some consumers will keep buying fish instead of meat," he said. "They tried something new and they might have liked it -- it's like a promotion for fish and seafood. "If a product is convincing it might lead to later re-purchases," he said.
Marggraf said fish sales at Frosta are stable, with no major shifts in market demand. Wild salmon and seafood paella remain the company's top sellers.