July 11, 2018

France losing appetite for seafood

Frenchmen have been falling off from the top seafood-consuming segments since 2016.

According to the 2018 seafood report on France prepared by the Norwegian Seafood Council, France in only two years has had 2,197,702 fewer consumers eating seafood twice or more a week. This means about 80 million less seafood meals or about 10,000 tonnes seafood less each year since 2016.

"This also means that the percentage of French consumers who are not getting enough of the nutrients seafood offer has gone up to 66 %. That is 43 million people", said the report, entitled "A New Era for Seafood in France".

Thus, only 34% of French consumers are high-frequent seafood consumers, or those who eat seafood twice or more a week. France is thus on the lower end of seafood consumption frequency.

In comparison, southern European countries Portugal and Spain have respectively 75% and 67% of their consumers eating seafood twice or more a week, the report said.

Norway is also a seafood-loving country, with two thirds of its population (71%) eating the recommended two portions of seafood every week.

Only Germans have a lower share of high-frequent seafood consumers than France, with a rate of 31%, the report said.