Mexican, Latino, and Hispanic restaurants became the dominant seller of shrimp among foodservice operators in 2021, according to data shared at the National Fisheries Institute’s 2022 Global Seafood Market Conference.
Data shared during the conference’s shrimp panel indicates that Mexican, Latino, and Hispanic restaurants sold 45.6 million pounds, or 20,683 metric tons (MT) of shrimp in 2021. That represents an increase of 14 percent over 2020.
“It’s jumped up to number one. Second is [the] bar and grill [category], and seafood [restaurants] fell from second to third this past year,” Performance Food Group Vice President of Procurement Mike Seidel said.
The bar and grill category sold 45.4 million pounds (20,593 MT) of shrimp, a drop of 4 percent compared to 2020. Seafood restaurants, now in third place, sold 40.1 million pounds (18,189 MT) of shrimp, down 3 percent.
More interesting than the amount, Seidel said, is the composition of the buying done at Mexican restaurants compared to the bar and grill segment. Of the total amount of shrimp purchased by bar and grill restaurants, 7.1 million pounds (3,220 MT) of it is breaded, dusted, or battered.
“In the Mexican restaurant, it's more of the unbreaded product. It’s only 604,000 pounds of the 45.6 million pounds that is a breaded, battered item,” Seidel said.
Another segment that saw a big jump in shrimp purchasing is quick-service chicken restaurants, which became the fifth-largest buyer of shrimp in the U.S. The segment increased its purchases of shrimp by 24 percent to 10.1 million pounds (4,581 MT).
Seidel said he expects that increase is largely related to the growing popularity of quick-service chicken restaurants as a whole, rather than being specifically related to shrimp.
“I can’t really remember a big campaign on T.V. pushing breaded shrimp at a QSR chicken restaurant,” he said. “I think shrimp is kind of along for the ride.”
By region, the Southeast U.S. – Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia – buys the most shrimp of any portion of the U.S., accounting for 35 percent of all sales in 2021. The region bought 3 percent less shrimp in 2021 than it did in the pre-pandemic year of 2019, however.
The next two largest shrimp-buying regions in the country are the U.S. West – Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming – and the U.S. Southcentral – Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas. Each region bought 17 percent of the shrimp sold in the U.S.
However, the U.S. West decreased its purchase of 10 percent in 2021 versus 2019, while the Southcentral region bought 4 percent more shrimp than it did in 2019.
All told, sales of shrimp to the foodservice industry were down in 2021 by 6 million pounds compared to pre-pandemic 2019. A total of 275 million pounds (124,737 MT) of shrimp was sold to foodservice establishments in 2021, compared to 281 million pounds (127,459 MT) sold in 2019. However, 2021 represents a significant jump from 2020, where just 225 million pounds (102,058 MT) was sold.
Photo courtesy of Brent Hofacker/Shutterstock
