According to a recent Stanford-led study, while consumption per capita of beef has declined since the 1960s, that of seafood has more than doubled and all indications are that global fish consumption will increase nearly 80% by 2050.
The anticipated growth in demand for fish and shellfish – so-called blue foods – results from several factors: population growth, local changes in affordability and trade and culture, but the volume of fish consumption has little to do with increased wealth, the study reports.
“You don’t see people eating more fish overall as they get richer, but the type of fish they eat may change. At low incomes, people consume more blue foods if they’re affordable. At high incomes, people eat fish if they have some sort of preference for it: health, or sustainability, or just taste,” says lead study author Rosamond Naylor, the William Wrigley Professor of Earth System Science at Stanford University.
In South Africa, retailers have put greater focus on high-end seafood as locked-down Saffas spent the country’s rolling lockdowns in the kitchen brushing up on their culinary skills. Before Covid, South Africans consumed about 12kg of seafood on average per person, per year.
There’s been a definite shift in interest for seafood products. Today’s seafood trends range from ready-made seafood meals to new upscale exclusive seafood ranges like the Forage and Feast range from Checkers endorsed by South Africa’s only Michelin-star chef, Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen.
For higher earning South Africans, diversity is key. This consumer group is after niche offerings, such as specialty fish lines like salmon, sole, and kingklip portions, as well as scallops and value-added lines like ready-crumbed mussels and crumbed/coated prawns.
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