FMI – The Food Industry Association released its seventh annual Power of Seafood report on 17 March at the 2025 Seafood Expo North America.
The most recent edition of the report highlighted that seafood continues to struggle to find solid footing at U.S. retail post-Covid.
According to the report, in 2024, the category was able to maintain the loyalty of frequent seafood shoppers – or those who consume seafood at least two times per week – but struggled to hold onto occasional buyers – or those who consume seafood anywhere from once a month to once a week.
The percentage of frequent seafood shoppers comprising total grocery consumers in the U.S. increased from 30 percent to 32 percent year over year in 2024 and has increased even greater from the 25 percent of shoppers who said they were frequent seafood shoppers in 2019.
Conversely, shoppers who consider themselves to be occasional seafood consumers dropped from 34 percent to 31 percent year over year in 2024 and have remained pretty much stagnant for the past five years, according to FMI’s report.
“Food inflation impacted this [latter] cohort last year, who are now having to buy ground beef or turkey or picking other items to get into the center of their plate to meet their budget,” FMI Vice President of Fresh Foods Rick Stein told SeafoodSource.
Fresh seafood particularly wrestled with headwinds in 2024, according to the report.
Citing data from research firm Circana, the latest Power of Seafood report said U.S. consumers bought USD 8.5 billion (EUR 7.9 billion) worth of fresh seafood last year, which was down 2.6 percent. Fresh sales by volume were also down 1.9 percent, making it the only seafood category that suffered sales dips by both value and volume.
The report attributed the poor performance of fresh seafood to lower prices for key species such as salmon and shrimp. Although lower prices might entice shoppers to buy, seafood is still considered expensive and a luxury, according to the report, which found 79 percent of shoppers view seafood as expensive and 66 percent view it as a luxury or an indulgence.
Therefore, some consumers, especially occasional ones, were scared off of fresh seafood purchases due to their perceptions about its price, but at the same time, the ones who made purchases did so at a lower price point.
“If I’m a millennial with children, I’m not far enough into my career where I’m into my heaviest income years. I have other expenses to consider, such as my housing, car, electricity, childcare, etc. All of these things are piling on, and they are going, ‘Where am I going to put my food dollars?’ That’s why I think they were less occasional last year,” Stein said.
Besides prices, consumers may also be turning away from fresh seafood to ...
