ON DECK
Northern Lights VIEWS FROM ALASKA
Alaska Seafood’s time is now mid the past year’s unstable foodservice and retail landscape, seafood has become one of grocery’s strongest players, catalyzing strong overall category growth by offering solutions to some of shoppers’ top priorities, such as health and wellness, ease of preparation, and quality. This interest is translating into seafood sales, according to the 2021 Food Marketing Institute Power of Seafood Report, which includes year-over-year seafood sales by department sourced by NielsenIQ. Frozen seafood sales grew an astounding 36 percent, fresh seafood sales grew 25 percent, and grocery seafood grew 21 percent! According to the report, the seafood department was a leader in the growth of grocery sales with an overall increase of nearly 30 percent,
A
6 National Fisherman \ June 2021
Datassential
By Megan Rider
As restaurants closed, more consumers prepared seafood at home.
much stronger than meat (18 percent), produce (11 percent), deli (0.3 percent) and bakery (-2 percent). One of the hallmarks of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute’s retail and foodservice marketing program is our focus on operator education. Our goal is to increase the value and awareness of seafood from Alaska, and one of the best tools to achieve this is to let operators know what consumers want, through consumer research. Partnering with the
www.nationalfisherman.com
