Seafood sales in the United States’ mass-market retailers and grocery stores dropped in May 2021 compared to 2020, but still rose significantly compared to 2019.
Frozen seafood sales dropped 14.5 percent this May versus May 2020, while fresh seafood sales declined 11.6 percent and ambient sales fell 12.2 percent, according to new data from 210 Analytics and IRI Worldwide. The decline can be attributed to consumers’ pandemic panic-buying last year, when COVID-19 shut down many meat plants and reduced meat productivity to half in some cases, 210 Analytics Principal Anne-Marie Roerink told SeafoodSource.
“This was the time when many retailers would only allow customers to purchase one or two packages of beef and pork, while at the same time consumers were in store less and wanting to buy for the whole week. That was really the start of the big surge in frozen and fresh seafood,” Roerink said. “Many expected sales to go back down when meat supplies had recovered but that never happened. Seafood sales just continued to track at very high levels.”
In fact, fresh and frozen seafood sales are trending far ahead of May 2019. Frozen seafood sales soared 42.3 percent in May 2021 compared to 2019, while fresh seafood spiked 31 percent.
Seafood is outperforming many other areas of the store – both in frozen and fresh, Roerink said.
“It’s quite remarkable to see consumer demand at retail continuing to be this strong as many restaurant channels are nearing pre-pandemic levels in terms of sales,” she said.
Seafood is continuing its rapid growth due to consumers’ awareness of its health benefits, their growing confidence with cooking seafood at home, and gravitation towards frozen foods during the pandemic, according to Roerink.
“It’s important to remember that 30 percent of Americans invested in expanded freezer capacity, whether an additional fridge/freezer combination or a stand-alone freezer, and clearly many consumers have discovered the convenience of frozen food,” she said.
Customers growing familiarity with seafood is now serving to boost fresh sales, according to Roerink.
“On the fresh side, growth is driven by an increased seafood IQ,” Roerink said. “Many consumers were a bit hesitant to cook seafood themselves. It’s a big [risk] and they were unsure on how to make it.”
During the past 15 months, consumers started with the “entry” fish – salmon – and then migrated into other species more “as their confidence in preparing seafood has increased,” Roerink said.
However, salmon is still the biggest seller in the fresh seafood department, boasting sales of USD 701 million (EUR 579 million) in May.
Salmon and crab represented more than half of fresh seafood sales, with crab sales soaring 79.3 percent compared to May 2019 but dropping 27.5 percent compared to May 2020. Salmon sales spiked 28.4 percent compared to 2019, but fell 2 percent compared to 2019.
“Salmon has been a pandemic powerhouse from day one. If people start to experiment in seafood, it tends to be shrimp, salmon, or items such as tilapia. I strongly believe that salmon reaped the benefits from all their investment in educating consumers about its favorable nutrition profile," Roerink said. "Salmon’s reputation in helping to support the immune system and overall health became another reason to buy it.”
Photo courtesy of Joni Hanebutt /Shutterstock
