European crabmeat consumption “can’t be compared” to the U.S., according to Layla Agrandi.
Agrandi’s company, Poseidon Food, is hoping to change that through innovation and marketing.
Based in Utrecht, the Netherlands – where crabmeat is “not so popular, to be honest,” according to Agrandi – Poseidon Food distributes across Europe, including Germany, France, and the United Kingdom.
“We cannot compare Europe with the U.S. market because the U.S.A. eats a lot of crabmeat, whereas in Europe, there are just small pockets [of consumption],” Agrandi, Poseidon’s office manager, told SeafoodSource at the 2024 Seafood Expo Global in Barcelona, Spain.
Pasteurized crabmeat demand has stabilized following the craziness of the Covid pandemic, Agrandi said, and now Poseidon Food is embarking on an effort to get more Europeans familiar with the product, with a big push to foodservice.
“Europeans, in general, are not used to eating crabmeat,” she said. “You’ll see it on menus occasionally, like on a salad or a pasta, or tapas. But it’s still a niche market.”
Poseidon is hoping a switch to plastic containers, which make the crabmeat visible, will help people become more familiar with the look of the product – many used to think it was a preserved product, or conserva, when it was packaged in tins, Agrandi said.
“In many places in Europe, and especially in the Netherlands, people are afraid to try something they don’t know,” she said.
Agrandi also said Europeans are tighter with their spending than Americans when it comes to seafood. She said claw meat is her firm’s most popular product because it's affordable.
“They’re not willing to pay for something if they don’t know what it is,” she said.
Poseidon is targeting Scandinavia as a potential growth market, with Agrandi saying the region appears to be more open to the product than her native Holland.
Poseidon sources its crabmeat primarily from the Philippines, India, and Indonesia, and one of its major suppliers is Phillips Foods, one of the biggest players in the sector globally.
Besides crabmeat, Poseidon offers tuna products, and recently began offering Japanese scallops, which are being processed in the Netherlands, following a recent trend of scallop processing moving out of Japan.
