With the troubled economy, Americans continue to shift spending habits by eating out less and preparing more meals at home. Evidence of this shift is apparent in U.S. retail seafood sales, according to data the Perishables Group of West Dundee, Ill., provided to SeafoodSource this week.
The seafood department tripled the average weekly dollar growth of any other perishables department in the past year, up 5.6 percent in the 52-week period ending 28 November, 2009.
Nationally, the seafood department averaged USD 6,093 in sales per store per week. The seafood department includes fresh seafood, comprising 81.5 percent of department dollar sales; prepared seafood, making up 15.3 percent; and other seafood (sauces, dips and spreads), contributing 3.2 percent. Fresh seafood posted USD 4,968 in per-store-per-week sales, a 6.3 percent increase from the previous year, while prepared seafood was up 3.3 percent at USD 901.
The seafood department had above-average dollar sales the weeks ending 20 December, 2008, through 3 January, 2009, and peaked the week ending 27 December, 2008, at USD 9,775. The department also posted above-average weekly sales in five out of the seven weeks of Lent, which ran from 25 February to 12 April, 2009.
The main standout in fresh seafood was the crustaceans category, which posted the highest average weekly dollar sales increase. All crustacean subcategories were up in the latest 52 weeks, driven primarily by lobster. Average weekly crustacean sales increased 21.8 percent per store to USD 826. Lobster, with prices at record lows, were up 47.9 percent in average weekly sales to USD 240 per store, placing it firmly in the top 10 subcategories in the seafood department across fresh and prepared seafood.
The finfish category was up 6 percent in average weekly sales to USD 2,019. Of the 15 finfish subcategories, 66.7 percent experienced growth in weekly store sales. Haddock and tilapia posted the largest gains in the latest 52 weeks, up 22.4 percent and 14.6 percent, respectively.
The shrimp category was down 1.3 percentage points to 27.9 percent in overall contribution to total seafood, driven primarily by losses in cooked shrimp. Raw shrimp was up 5.3 percent in average weekly sales to USD 961, while cooked shrimp fell 4.5 percent to USD 772.
Prepared seafood experienced an increase in average weekly sales, up 3.3 percent to USD 930 per store. Increases in seven of the top 10 subcategories drove the prepared seafood increases, led by the prepared fish subcategory, up 5.5 percent to USD 316 in per-store-per-week-sales, and prepared crustaceans, up 4.1 percent to USD 283). Though these increases were not large enough to maintain the previous share of total seafood, prepared seafood declined 0.3 percentage point to 15.3 percent in dollar contribution to department.
Seafood department five-year total projected historical average weekly dollar trends were up 26.4 percent. All super-categories had double-digit growth since 2004. Fresh seafood was up 22.5 percent, prepared seafood was up 54.1 percent and other seafood was up 19.5 percent.
