Aquaculture America 2023

February 23 - 26, 2023

New Orleans, Louisiana USA

MARKET TRENDS FOR TROUT PRODUCTS IN THE U.S. RETAIL MARKET

Lianqun Sun*, Carole Engle, Ganesh Kumar, and Jonathan van Senten

Delta Research and Extension Center, Thad Cochran National Warmwater Aquaculture Center, Mississippi State University, Stoneville, Mississippi-38776 USA

 



Trout is an important U.S. aquaculture product. The seafood supply in the US is increasingly dominated by imported products. It is important for trout farmers, processors, wholesalers, and retailers to continually seek information on the latest trends in retail markets. This paper focuses on the retail market trends for trout, especially rainbow and steelhead trout products across national, regional, and city levels as well as key trends in product forms, quantity sold, sales under promotion,  and price comparisons. The retail sales information was obtained from weekly, store-based AC Nielsen ScanTrack data from September 2016 through August 2021. The results show that trout sales in the retail market have increased steadily by 7% annually from 2016 to 2021, with the quantity increasing by a 6% annual growth rate. The South Atlantic region was the largest regional market for trout sales, followed by the Pacific, and South Central regions. The West North Central region, however, was the fastest-growing regional market in terms of sales and quantity. Seattle was the biggest city market for trout sales, followed by Portland, OR, and Atlanta in 2020-2021. Atlanta and Tampa had the highest growth rate for the quantity of trout sold (Figure 1). Steelhead trout occupied a 72% market share of trout sales, while rainbow trout had a 26% retail market share. The retail market share of steelhead trout steadily increased (sales and quantity), with an annual growth rate of 6% and 9%, respectively. Frozen products were the most commonly sold products (90%) mainly in small packs (454-g packs). The price for trout products remained relatively stable over the 2016-2021 period.