Every dollar added to the price of a pound of salmon cuts sales volumes by 15 to 20 percent, according to an executive at a major U.S. food retail chain speaking last week at the National Fisheries Institute’s Global Seafood Market Conference in San Francisco, California.
The price-consciousness of American shoppers requires his stores to stock a variety of salmon, he said.
“Salmon consumers are savvy,” he said. “They know when the season is [for fresh salmon from Alaska], and they are wanting and demanding [it], so we’re not afraid to jump into the USD 12 to 14 (EUR 11 to 13) price-point during the season. But they still want sockeye and that premium eating experience year-round, so we keep some frozen to have available all year-round. But we’ve found we still have to have the lower-value [farmed] salmon as well.”
U.S. consumers are also beginning to express a clear preference for wild-caught salmon due to their fears regarding aquaculture, he said.
“I get 10 to 15 emails a day from customers who are anti-aquaculture,” he said.
That bias was confirmed by a second panelist, who said the seafood industry as a whole won’t see large-scale growth until it addresses the public’s growing concern regarding the food safety of seafood produced through aquaculture.
“The average U.S. consumer hates aquaculture,” he said. “He also doesn’t like products from Asia. The growing problem we have is that customers are looking at the industry, and with the growth of aquaculture and imports from Asia, [that all is] negative in customers’ eyes.”
The key issue is food safety, he said.
“We need to educate consumers about why aquaculture is necessary, and what are the food safety issues out there…Most importantly, we need to clean up [bad actors] overseas or cut them loose,” he said. “We can’t expect to keep the status quo and still expect to grow.”
According to the chief buyer for a major seafood restaurant chain, the two most common questions from customers regarding seafood it serves are the origin of the salmon it serves and whether it was raised using antibiotics.
The panelists concurred on the importance of sustainability to the industry, but agreed it was not due to consumer demand. One panelist said sustainability is “fifth or sixth” in the reasons customers purchase salmon – not high enough to merit serious attention as a market driver, he said.
“Sustainability is still not rising to the top of what is important in their purchase,” he said.
The reason it still must be a priority for the industry is maintain salmon’s reputation a healthy and safe food to eat, he said, adding that the industry must pursue sustainability to ensure its own longevity.
Certification schemes can play a role in that effort, but currently, there are too many, serving only to befuddle consumers, he added.
“The proliferation of logos confuses customers…Customers have no idea what any of them mean,” he said. “That’s why we recently endorsed the GSSI, which is benchmarking these labels to identify the legitimate labels, so we can avoid the greenwashing that I believe is out there.”
Despite the problems lurking for the salmon sector, its future is bright, the panel concluded.
“What makes it so popular is the versatility of how it can be cooked,” another panelist said. “It’s probably the most versatile product we have in our arsenal.”
