Catfish, lobster, haddock, pollock, and crab each have regional strongholds in the U.S. But a few species have broken through to national popularity, with shrimp, salmon, and cod leading the charge.
Shrimp was ranked the most popular species of seafood in every region of the U.S. for 2023. Salmon also made an appearance in the top five seafood species in all nine regions of the U.S., as identified by a Circana SupplyTrack survey done over 52 weeks ending June 2023. The data was presented at the Global Seafood Market Conference on 25 January 2024 in Orlando, Florida, U.S.A.
The regional trends echo national data released by the National Fisheries Institute, which ranked shrimp the top-consumed species in the U.S., and salmon second. But cod, which ranked seventh on the national list, appeared in the top five species consumed in seven of the nine U.S. regions surveyed by Circana.
New England’s top five preferred species were shrimp, haddock, salmon, cod, and lobster. The Middle Atlantic preferred shrimp, salmon, cod, haddock, and crab, in that order.
The South Atlantic favored shrimp, crab, salmon, pangasius, and cod as its top five species. The East South Central U.S. states favored shrimp, catfish, pangasius, crab, and salmon.
The West South Central region of the U.S. saw shrimp, pangasius, catfish, salmon, and tilapia as its top five preferred species. The Mountain region of the U.S. ranked shrimp, cod, salmon, pollock, and crab. The Pacific region preferred shrimp, cod, salmon, pollock, and tilapia as its top five choices.
Regional preferences have always played an important role in how U.S. seafood vendors approach ...
Image courtesy of National Fisheries Institute
