September 3, 2014 — Bronzini, Barramondi, Cobia and Black Grouper. Those are just some of the species retailers are baiting their seafood cases with in hopes of hooking shoppers’ attention—and dollars.
Items like these set retailers apart from their competition, says Brian Diffenderfer, director of meat and seafood for Daymon Worldwide, based in Stamford, Conn. “It keeps customers looking for something unique and coming back for more.”
Lesser-known species may have that “wow” factor and draw in window-shoppers, but more often than not consumers will actually purchase a fish that they are familiar with—such as salmon, tuna, trout and halibut—and in today’s economy, one that they will get value from.
“The consumer is being very particular about what they buy,” says Don Riffle, vice president of sales and marketing for Clear Springs Foods, the Buhl, Idaho-based producer of farm-raised rainbow trout. “They want to make sure they are getting good value. We think we our rainbow trout is a good value.”
Of course value is measured in different ways. Take salmon, for example. Larry Andrews, retail marketing director out of the Seattle office for the Juneau, Alaska-based Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI), says there are five species of salmon, all of which have different tastes, textures and price points.
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