What COVID gave, it appears inflation has taken away.
For all the destruction COVID inflicted, the pandemic did produce a serious boost in US retail seafood sales.
With restaurants forced to close or convert to takeout during the better part of 2020, consumers began cooking more of their meals at home. This led to an uptick in seafood purchases at retail.
Initially, shelf-stable and frozen seafood benefitted most from the sales boost because of panic buying, but as the pandemic dragged on and restaurant dining largely came to a standstill, consumers did something they hadn’t done ever before – they learned how to cook fresh seafood at home, and sales boomed.
