U.S. foodservice outlets sold more shrimp year over year in 2023, due in part to lower prices, and more outlets included shrimp on their menus, improving the products' countrywide menu penetration.
However, customers bought less average volume per visit, and foodservice businesses used an average of 20 pounds less volume per establishment, according to Performance Food Group Vice President of Procurement Michael Seidel.
Foodservice outlets have grown their shrimp purchases by 11.5 percent by volume since 2017, but that total grew just 0.5 percent in 2023 to 284.5 million pounds, Seidel said, citing Circana data from the top 25 U.S. broadline distributors while speaking at the 2024 Global Seafood Marketing Conference in Orlando, Florida, U.S.A. on 23 January.
The panel on which he spoke at the conference said 2023 was a difficult year and predicted continued contraction across the seafood industry in 2024, particularly with shrimp imports.
Still, a total of 282,000 unique foodservice establishments had shrimp on their menus in 2023, up 10,000 from 2022, representing 35 percent of the 798,675 foodservice operators present in the data.
Shrimp is an incredible value for foodservice operators, Seidel said. In 2023, it was selling for an average of ...
Image courtesy of National Fisheries Institute
