An overview of U.S. seafood preferences as seen through the lens of broadline distribution data from the 48 contiguous U.S. states has revealed islands of opportunity amidst a mostly flat market for seafood.
Speaking at the 2019 Global Seafood Market Conference in Coronado, California, U.S.A., Mike Seidel of Performance Foodservice and Tim Fires of The NPD Group analyzed data covering 61 billion restaurant visits, representing USD 97 billion (EUR 85 billion) in sales.
Overall foodservice and restaurant spending was up 3.3 percent year-over-year for the 12-month period ending September 2018. But the number of seafood servings sold dropped 2.5 percent to 2.7 billion, according to Fires.
“Seafood servings are down in commercial restaurants,” Fires said.
According to the NPD data, the volume of seafood served in U.S. restaurants moved up just one percent in the same period, to 949.2 million pounds. Sales of fish were flat, at 481.9 million pounds and sales of shellfish moved up 1.7 percent to 462.9 million pounds, mostly due to the increasing popularity of shrimp, which hit a per capita consumption rate of 4.4 pounds in the U.S. in 2017, according to NOAA. At the same time, the total value of seafood sales in the same time period rose five percent to USD 5.4 billion (EUR 4.7 billion), meaning customers paid higher prices for the seafood they bought in restaurants.
The smallest and largest markets in the United States saw the greatest growth in seafood purchases in restaurants, with both the South Atlantic (with 310 million pounds) and New England (with 47 million pounds) seeing three percent growth. However, four of the eight U.S. regions – representing the central region of the country stretching from the Dakotas in the northwest to Alabama in the southeast – experienced overall declines in the total amount of seafood consumed in restaurants.
While the data from full-service restaurants did not portend the best possible outcome for seafood, a bright spot was seen in seafood sales at so-called “street businesses” – independent restaurant operators with fewer than 20 locations. That sector saw 3.8 percent growth in sales, and it sold two percent more seafood (567.8 million pounds) worth USD 3.5 billion (EUR 3.1 billion), up five percent year-over-year.
“[t’s] obvious that where the growth trend is happening is in these one-to-19 customers, these independent restaurants [and] what’s pulling us down … are those larger chains with 250 locations or above,” Seidel told the audience, which was largely composed of seafood executives. “That doesn’t you should abandon those folks and go running after these independent [operators]. It means you need to make sure you shore up those larger customers that are in decline. You need to do everything you can because of their large volume. If you can lift their volume, you can lift the whole seafood industry up.”
While encouraging a deeper investigation of regional data and preferences, Fires said the only way to grow seafood consumption and sales in U.S. restaurants is to take a more holistic approach of studying the larger national trends affecting the sector. He pointed to robust growth in take-out and delivery orders as representative of an important national trend to follow.
“While we understand that seafood [sales] are not growing as fast as we would like, we [should] find the pockets of growth within,” he said.
Fires also noted more spicy food and ethnic flavors have become much more popular, and said customers like to order seafood at restaurants because it gives them an experience they might not be able to have at home.
“Restaurants are about experiences, and seafood creates experiences,” he said.
Fires repeated his message from his address at the 2018 GSMC in Miami, Florida, when he told the audience that seafood’s status as a healthy protein continues to be one of its most favorable attributes.
“Protein is still what consumers are looking for,” he said at this year’s event. “It has a healthy halo and you need to make sure communicating that.”
Image courtesy of the NPD Group
