Supermarket Perimeter - April 2021 - 3

Editor's note

Editorial
JOHN UNREIN
Editor
ANDY NELSON
Managing Editor
EMILY PARK
Digital Associate Editor
Publishing
TROY ASHBY
Publisher
LILY ALVAREZ
Sales Manager Classified Ads
MICHAEL BARBEE
Audience Development Director
DUSTIN PICKMAN
Audience Development Analyst
CARLEA SCHULER
Audience Development Coordinator
JONATHAN HAWLEY
Audience Database Specialist
JON HALL
Director of Digital Media
CARRIE FLUEGGE
Digital Advertising Manager
NORA WAGES
Advertising Manager
ANNIE FOURNIER
Advertising Coordinator
ELISABETH SPILLMAN
Design Services Manager
MARJ POTTS
Production Specialist
BECKY WHITE
Senior Design Consultant
FIONA DANKER
Graphic Designer
JIM WHITE
Promotions Manager
ABBY CHRONISTER
Promotions Media Designer

Seafood
surge

Count my household among those that has upped its home
seafood game during COVID.
And this particular home cook can attest that cooking most
seafood is not as scary as a lot of consumers answering survey questions would have us
believe. If I can do it, anyone can.
Seafood has been one of the top-performing perimeter categories during the pandemic,
as Arlington, Va.-based FMI-The Food Industry Association's new Power of Seafood report
makes clear.
Restaurants closing, consumers seeking healthier and nutritious foods, the desire for
variety, cooking fatigue, supply issues and higher prices for other proteins - the number of
reasons behind the surge are abundant.
And seafood consumers tend to be the kind that get retailers' attention. Namely, they tend
to spend a lot, online and instore.
The growth in seafood sales has been category-wide. All three of the " big three " species
- shrimp (+29.6%), salmon (+24.7%) and tuna (+20.4%) - saw gains last year. Notching the
highest percentage gains were crabs (+60.2%) and lobsters (+59.9%).
The pandemic has also led to more experimentation with varieties. More than one-third
of seafood consumers (38%) have bought new or different seafood during the pandemic.
But COVID doesn't get all the credit for seafood's strong performance at retail. Rather,
it's an existing trend that the pandemic has accelerated. In 2018, according to FMI, 21% of
Americans were eating seafood the recommended two times a week. The proportion of
frequent seafood consumers grew to 25% in 2019, then to 32% in 2020.
Here's betting the trend continues long after the pandemic is finally behind us. What
home cook isn't looking for new sources of protein to add to their or their family's diet? That
it's one of the more healthful sources of protein, and one with an increasingly stellar record
on sustainability and other things 21st century consumers are looking for, just adds to the
attraction.
And, yes, if you can read a bit, seafood is not hard to cook.

WHITNEY HARTMAN
Sales Coordinator
Corporate
CHARLES S. SOSL AND
Chairman and CEO
L. JOSHUA SOSL AND
President
STACI GRECO
Chief Financial and
Administrative Officer
MEYER SOSL AND
Chief Operating Officer
and Executive Editor
JIM SAL ADIN
Chief Marketing Officer

ANDY NELSON
anelson@sosland.com

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Supermarket Perimeter - April 2021

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