November 12, 2013 — The U.S. seafood industry was presented with a grim reality at this year's Halloween when the government announced that seafood consumption in 2012 had dropped. Pundits have had a little time to chew on the topic, and the reasons for the decline run the gamut.
The environmental camp used it as a soapbox opportunity to say consumers are eating less seafood because of fear of contaminants. Companies that produce testing kits for contaminants capitalized on the moment by saying low consumer confidence in seafood was to blame.
What's really scaring people away from seafood, however, is the price. Name a species that hasn't gone through major price increases in the past few years and you'll find an obscure fish available only to a limited population. In September the Consumer Price Index for seafood reached an all-time high of 147.6, a 48 percent increase from January 2003. The only other protein with a higher CPI than seafood was beef and veal, which reached 166.4 in September, a 67 percent increase in the same time period.
Read the full story at Seafood Source