The £2 price tag for the 840g fish works out at £2.38 per kilo, and has turned what many view as a rare treat into an everyday commodity food such as chicken or baked beans. Asda's rivals --Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrisons -- are likely to launch their own deals.
The £2 figure is a fraction of the price for fresh salmon charged by some retailers. Waitrose sells a larger fresh salmon, typically 3kg, for £35.97, which works out at £11.99 per kilo -- around five times the Asda price -- while Marks & Spencer sells a 2kg fresh whole bone-in Scottish Lochmuir salmon for £25. Tesco sells whole fresh salmon at £10 a kilo.
Food industry experts, according to the Daily Mail, question whether it can be possible to deliver a salmon to a British shopper for such a low price while paying a fair price to the fishermen involved. There are suspicions that Asda, part of the US food giant Wal-Mart, is using the fish as a loss leader in an attempt to give rivals a bloody nose.
