The seafood department saw little growth in 2024. Among the fresh departments, the seafood department was the only one to have a decrease in sales dollars.

Despite price decreases, seafood is perceived as expensive. Decreases in prices for many species in 2024 did little to impact the shopper perception that seafood is expensive regardless of the extent that the shopper purchases seafood.

The healthy halo still shines over seafood. One thing that most shoppers, regardless of how often they eat seafood, agree upon is that seafood is healthy and good for them.

Lack of knowledge about and food waste are impediments to seafood consumption. Many shoppers note that a lack of knowledge about how to prepare or buy/select seafood makes them hesitant to purchase seafood.

Cooking at home but wanting to learn more. The majority of seafood is prepared and eaten at home, but many seafood consumers stay in their comfort zone by using traditional and familiar prep methods for the same few species they regularly purchase.

The frequent seafood shopper is highly desirable. The share of frequent seafood consumers has grown from 25% to 32% in the past five years. Around 42% of all seafood purchases are made by 10% of shoppers.

Seafood shoppers spread their seafood purchases around, but online sales of seafood still lag. Shoppers leverage a diverse set of channels for seafood. Traditional grocery stores are the main seafood source for some shoppers.

Comparing seafood prices across retailers. Seafood shoppers compare prices, but quality remains the priority.

Preparing the next generations. Among seafood consumers with children, most say their children like or love seafood but only 17% say their children eat the same meal as they do when they prepare seafood. In fact, one-fourth (26%) say they always make their children something different than seafood when seafood is on the menu. These are lost opportunities to build future seafood consumers.

Divided perceptions: wild vs. farmed. The wild-caught and farm-raised conundrum continues on as shoppers fall in three camps. Consumers can identify the benefits of both farm-raised and wild-caught seafood but identifying which they prefer leads to confusion. The industry should strive to help shoppers understand the positives of the two methods with a focus on increasing consumption of all seafood – wild-caught or farm-raised.

US seafood sales slumped from shoppers viewing category as too expensive