Seafood sales through foodservice were essentially flat in 2022, Performance Food Group Vice President of Procurement Mike Seidel said at the National Fisheries Institute’s Global Seafood Markets Conference’s shrimp panel on Tuesday, 17 January in La Quinta, California, U.S.A.
But finfish was a big winner, with total sales increasing 9.1 percent by value for the 12 months ending in November 2022, Seidel said, citing data collected by his company. That made up for a decline in crustacean sales which was led by a drop in crab and squid sales, though shrimp sales rose 1.5 percent year-over-year. Groundfish sales were up 1.8 percent, while flatfish sales declined 11.9 percent, Freshwater fish sales were down 2.1 percent, and canned tuna sales dropped 10.2 percent.
“We're all trying to figure out what kind of happened to shrimp and seafood,” Seidel said. “I'm not sure. I mean, it's kind of crazy.”
The average per-pound price of shrimp rose to USD 6.30 (EUR 5.82) over the past 12 months, up from USD 5.94 (EUR 5.48) in 2021 and USD 5.53 (EUR 5.11) in 2020. Volumes sold rose from 225.5 million pounds in 2020 to 274.8 million pounds in 2021 and hit 279 million pounds in 2022. An estimated 2.8 percent more unique customers purchased shrimp year-over-year in 2022, Seidel said, citing NPD Supply Track data.
Sales of 16-20 size shrimp, comprising 18.7 percent of the market, were up 5.4 percent by volume, while sales of 21-25 size and 26-30 size shrimp, comprising 18.4 percent and 16.5 percent of the market, dropped 2 percent and 3.5 percent, respectively. Smaller-size shrimp fared better, as 41-50 size shrimp (comprising 9 percent of the market) and 71-100 count shrimp (comprising 5.4 percent of the market), rose 2.2 percent and 8 percent in the marketplace, respectively, by volume.
“Over the years we’ve tracked this, larger sizes of shrimp have become more prominent, but in the past we’ve seen with pricing changes, people would move to a smaller size. But then last year, we saw that pricing increased and people moved to larger sizes,” Seidel said. “We've seen people move away from small shrimp in restaurants over the last several years.”
Of the total volume of 279 million pounds of shrimp sold, 35 million pounds was breaded or battered and 234 million pounds was unbreaded.
Photo courtesy of National Fisheries Institute
