US seafood consumption growing

With the troubled economy, Americans continue to shift spending habits, and it is seen apparent in retail seafood sales, according to data the Perishables Group of West Dundee, Illinois.

The seafood department tripled the average weekly dollar growth of any other perishables department in the past year, up 5.6% in the 52-week period ending 28 November, 2009.

The seafood department had above-average dollar sales the weeks ending December 20, 2008, through January 3, 2009, and peaked the week ending December 27, 2008, at US$9,775. The department also posted above-average weekly sales in five out of the seven weeks of Lent, which ran from February 25 to April 12, 2009.

The main standout in fresh seafood was the crustaceans category, which posted the highest average weekly dollar sales increase. All crustacean subcategories were up in the latest 52 weeks, driven primarily by lobster. Average weekly crustacean sales increased 21.8% per store to US$826.

The finfish category was up 6% in average weekly sales to US$2,019. Of the 15 finfish subcategories, 66.7% experienced growth in weekly store sales. Haddock and tilapia posted the largest gains in the latest 52 weeks, up 22.4% and 14.6%, respectively.

However, the shrimp category was down 1.3% to 27.9% in overall contribution to total seafood, driven primarily by losses in cooked shrimp. Raw shrimp was up 5.3% in average weekly sales to US$961, while cooked shrimp fell 4.5% to US$772.

Prepared seafood saw an increase in average weekly sales, up 3.3% to US$930 per store. Increases in seven of the top 10 subcategories drove the prepared seafood increases, led by the prepared fish subcategory, up 5.5% to US$316 in per-store-per-week-sales, and prepared crustaceans, up 4.1% to US$283).

Though these increases were not large enough to maintain the previous share of total seafood, prepared seafood declined 0.3% to 15.3% in dollar contribution to department.

Seafood department five-year total projected historical average weekly dollar trends were up 26.4%. All super-categories had double-digit growth since 2004. Fresh seafood was up 22.5%, prepared seafood was up 54.1% and other seafood was up 19.5%.