Minneapolis, USA.- Seafood is in higher demand than ever before, with 82 percent of Americans adding salmon, shrimp and tilapia to their lunch and dinner plates. However, they won’t settle for just any seafood. They want to know where it’s coming from and that it was sourced responsibly, according to a June 2017 Cargill Feed4Thought consumer survey.
Results Summary
1. A large percentage of Americans consume seafood.
– 82% of consumers said they eat seafood.
– Consumption for seafood was high, regardless of generation, with 90% of baby boomers, 76% of Gen Xers and 74% of millennials eating seafood.
2. Consumption may be highest among baby boomers due to the perceived health benefits.
– Overall, 72% of all consumers believe seafood has health and nutritional benefits.
– Additionally, 79% of baby boomers indicated that eating seafood is important to their health and nutrition, as compared to 63% of Gen Xers and 63% of millennials.
3. Despite the high consumption levels, consumers eat seafood less often than other protein sources.
– Compared to other animal proteins, only 15% of consumers eat more seafood, while 58% eat less and 27% eat the same amount of seafood as they do other proteins.
4. The perceived price of seafood may be a barrier to more frequent consumption.
– Households with income lower than $25K were more likely to eat seafood less than once a week (50%) compared to households with $100K or higher incomes (36%).
5. Shrimp is the top-ranked seafood for most consumers.
– Shrimp (2.0 mean ranking).
– Salmon (2.7 mean ranking).
– Marine fish (3.1 mean ranking).
– Tilapia (3.4 mean ranking).
– Catfish (3.8 mean ranking).
6. Seafood preferences showed regional variability.
– Consumers in the South were most likely to give a highest preference ranking to catfish than any other region (23% as compared to 12% for all other regions).
– Consumers living in the West were just as likely to prefer shrimp as they are salmon (38% for each type of seafood).
– Southerners were least likely to rank marine fish in their top-three preferred fish (48%), while 33% of all other regions left marine fish unranked.
7. Consumers with more formal schooling prefer salmon.
– Consumers with at least a high school education preferred salmon, as compared to their counterparts with lower education levels (20% vs. 32%, respectively).
8.- The majority of respondents believe their seafood is responsibly harvested.
– 84% said they believe the seafood they eat was sourced in a safe and responsible way.
– College graduates were less likely to indicate their seafood was responsibly harvested as compared to other education levels (79% for college grads vs. a combined 86%, respectively).
9. Formal assurances that seafood was responsibly harvested impacts millennials.
– Overall, 88% of consumers will buy more seafood if the seafood is certified as being sustainable and sourced in a responsible way.
– Millennials were more likely than baby boomers to be persuaded to purchase certified seafood (93% vs. 86%).
– Millennials were also more likely to consider where and how seafood was sourced as important to their purchase criteria (79% vs. 65% for Gen Xers and 69% for baby boomers).
10. How seafood is raised may also have generational differences.
– Overall, 64% of consumers expressed a preference for how their seafood was raised:
50% prefer wild caught
14% prefer farm-raised seafood
– Compared to baby boomers (60%) and Gen Xers (60%), millennials (73%) were much more likely to express a preference for how their seafood was raised.
11. Consumers expressing a preference for wild caught seafood will pay a premium for it.
– 80% of consumers that preferred wild-caught seafood will pay a premium for that seafood.
Note: Survey conducted among sample of 1,010 U.S. adults from June 8-11, 2017.
About Cargill
Cargill provides food, agriculture, financial and industrial products and services to the world. Together with farmers, customers, governments and communities, we help people thrive by applying our insights and 150 years of experience. We have 150,000 employees in 70 countries who are committed to feeding the world in a responsible way, reducing environmental impact and improving the communities where we live and work. For more information, visit www.cargill.com
