Supermarket Perimeter - October 2024 - 56

Seafood
Shellfish
By Christine Blank
AS THE DEFLATION IN SHRIMP, CRAB AND OTHER SHELLFISH
- along with consumers' economic woes - have resulted in lower
dollar sales, experts are encouraging retailers to step up discounts,
assortment, and promotions.
Overall shellfish sales declined in the second quarter of 2024, due to
both deflation and comparisons with a strong second quarter of 2023
- which included a later Easter holiday than this year, said Anne-Marie
Roerink, principal at 210 Analytics, during the Seafood in the U.S. Retail -
Q2 2024 webinar sponsored by MSD Animal Health.
Fresh shrimp prices fell 4.9% in the quarter, according to Circana data
for the 13 weeks ending June 30, resulting in a sales decline of 7.6% while
pounds fell 2.8%. In August, fresh shrimp prices declined 3%, and dollars
followed suit, dropping 3.3%. That month, pounds fell only slightly (0.3%).
" Unfortunately, due to the current US economy's continued inflation
and record high consumer debt levels, there has not been a broader
acceptance to trigger increased shrimp demand based on the lower
prices, " said Jason Resner, president at DNR Sales & Marketing Strategy
Advisors and former meat and seafood sales, merchandising, marketing,
and procurement lead for Fresh Thyme Market. " Everything costs more,
so even though shrimp in general are staying at historically low costs,
customers are not seeing more value in the other proteins per se, but
just can't afford what has been an incremental seafood purchase like in
the past. "
Overall, shellfish prices declined 1.9% in the quarter, but crab prices
plunged 7.6%. As a result, crab sales dove down 12.7% and pounds
56 - OCTOBER 2024
decreased by 5.5%. Comparatively, crab pound sales surged 25% in the
second quarter of 2023.
" Last year, crab had a monster first half of the year. That means a
very high bar to meet for crab to go up against, and a bar that is proven
to be too high in the light of the economic pressure, " Roerink noted.
" However, when you were to look further back, you can see that crab
demand is still very strong. "
The prolonged inflationary and higher interest rate environment
pushes seafood lower on the shopping list - if it makes it on it at all -
for most consumers, Resner explained. For instance, lobster, one of the
few shellfish to increase in price in the second quarter, realized a price
hike of 17%. As a result, lobster pounds dropped a significant 20% and
sales fell 6.3% in the second quarter.
" Seafood more commonly seen as a 'luxury 'item across most
demographics - especially when you get outside of the coastal states.
Lower retails are not equating to increased or sustained movement, "
Resner said.
Additionally, while the recent performance for shrimp is better than
earlier in the year, grocers should recognize that any year-over-year
trends that are positive are mostly cycling negative trends from 2023 for
the majority of the industry.
" It is critical for both retailers and suppliers to look at the twoyear
and three-year stacked comps to get an idea on how they are
really performing on both sales and volume impacting consumer
consumption, " Resner explained. " Simple year-over-year gains might be
supermarketperimeter.com
Andriy Blokhin, azurita - stock.adobe.com
http://www.supermarketperimeter.com
Supermarket Perimeter - October 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Supermarket Perimeter - October 2024
