With pandemic-weary consumers starting to eat out again, grocery retailers and suppliers must up their game to maintain shopper interest.
The year 2021 was huge for fresh and frozen seafood sales: They both exceeded the $7 billion mark, besting 2020 sales, with frozen notching a 2.6% increase, although units and volumes dipped a bit, while fresh saw dollar growth of 4.0% and its sales compared with pre-pandemic 2019 increased a whopping 30.8%, according to San Antonio-based 210 Analytics.
Even shelf-stable seafood, which generated $2.5 billion in 2021 — down about 11% to 13% across dollars, units and volume from last year — experienced sales well ahead of the pre-pandemic normal of 2019, the market research company found.