Consumption of seafood per capita among American consumers sunk slightly in 2020 compared to 2019, due in large part to the disruptions wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the National Fisheries Institute’s (NFI) recently-released top 10 list.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) latest Fisheries of the United States report – which NFI uses to compose its routine top species breakdown – found that Americans consumed 19 pounds of seafood per capita in 2020, down from the 19.3-pound average tallied in 2019.
“The onset of COVID-19 brought significant disruption to traditional business operations and consumer behaviors,” NFI said of the findings in a press release. “While restaurants were forced to shutter, there was an impressive uptick in seafood purchases at retail, but apparently not enough to find an equilibrium in the first full year of the pandemic.”
Despite the overall dip, a number of specific seafood species became more popular in 2020, NFI noted.
