Seafood Industry Facing Challenges from In-House Dining Shut-Downs But Has Opportunities to Appeal to Home Cooks

April 10, 2020 - The seafood industry is seeing challenges during the coronavirus crisis. Many food industries are balancing losses in the foodservice market against gains in the retail as consumers shift their food spending away from restaurants to stocking their home refrigerator, freezer, and pantry.

However, the seafood industry has typically relied heavily on foodservice, with more than two-thirds of the value of consumer spending on seafood occurring at restaurants, caterers, and others. Higher value versions (e.g., scallops, lobster) are particularly hard-hit by the loss of sales to this sector. The worldwide industry is further hampered by economic slowdowns in key global seafood-consuming nations such as China, Italy, Japan, and Spain.

Seafood sales are more challenged on the retail side than many other foods:

• Many consumers are not in the habit of cooking seafood.
• Some home cooks consider seafood more difficult to cook properly.
• Picky tastes among children may keep families from buying and serving seafood to the family at large.
• Seafood is often more expensive than other proteins, which will prevent consumers who are concerned about their budgets in an uncertain economic period from buying it.

However, consumers still view seafood as healthy. Additionally, more time spent at home is leading some home cooks to experiment with recipes they might have considered to be too complicated or time consuming before. Falling prices associated with an oversupply may also convince consumers to increase seafood purchases made through retail outlets.

Marketing efforts to bolster sales could include emphasizing the healthful benefits and nutritional content of seafood, as well as providing chef-driven instructional videos and recipes. Products that are free of artificial flavors, colors, and preservatives take advantage of current clean eating trends. However, ready-to-eat and recipe-ready products accommodate consumer desire for convenience.

For more information, see our sister publisher Packaged Facts’ coverage of the food industry, including The Organic and Clean Label Food Shopper, Affluent Food Shoppers, Global Food E-Commerce as well as The Freedonia Group’s reports on Meat, Poultry & Seafood Packaging, which includes a new addendum with COVID-19 market impact analysis and an estimated market size for year 2020, and Global Aquaculture.