This week is the Global Seafood Market Conference at the Loews Santa Monica, Calif. The second annual conference, produced by the National Fisheries Institute, gives industry players an overview of the state of the seafood industry, including the competitive market for other center-of-plate proteins. The conference sessions will also touch on important retail trends for 2013, as well as casual-dining seafood preferences.
This year NFI commissioned a consumer restaurant trend study with the NPD Group, which will be unveiled on Thursday morning. From whether the healthy eating movement really drives seafood sales to which specific geographic markets are expanding their seafood palates, the study covers topics that will help suppliers and restaurateurs alike.
“Is it marketing or menu selection that drives seafood sales in restaurants?” said Judy Dashiell, NFI’s senior VP. “Our new research shows that may depend on how often you eat seafood. Heavy seafood users decided to order seafood before they got to the restaurant 67 percent of the time. While light seafood users decided in advance only 48 percent of the time. This type of information can be an important consumer snap shot that has the potential to affect a wide array of business decisions.”
Aside from industry and species-specific research, the conference also serves as the official graduation of the Future Leaders, an educational program that takes into account all aspects of the industry. Today 29 members of the 2012 class were recognized: Christopher Martin of Endeavor Seafood; Chelsie Funk of Euclid Fish Co.; Jon Rezny of Fortune Fish Co.; Barbara Fiske of Gorton’s Seafood; Alex Tudose of Harbor Seafood; Betsy Arrington of Harvest Select; Denise Gurshin of High Liner Foods; Connor Boney of J.J. McDonnell; Jason Hagen and L.B. Watkins of King & Prince Seafood; Renee Ross of LA Cold Storage; Joe Chekouras and Andrew Howard of Mazzetta Co., LLC; Carrie Mitchell of Odyssey Enterprises; Lawrence Bingham of Orca Bay Seafood; Margaret Pilaro Barrette of Pacific Coast Shellfish Growers Association; Jon Steinman of Pacific Seafood; Derek Murphy of Preferred Freezer Services; Dean Frank of QVD Aquaculture; Byron Shefchik of Rich Products; Cesar Bencosme of Sea Delight; Louie Lee of Sea Port Products Corp.; Katie Kroeger of Slade Gorton & Co.; Larry Brick and Sean Casady of Trident Seafoods Corp.; Michele Eddy and Justin Popp of UniSea; MaryAnn Zicarelli of Urner Barry; Nick Rushton of Wells Fargo Bank.
