April 28, 2025 — U.S. restaurant sales and traffic slowed in 2024, and for some individual chains, those negative trends have continued into 2025.
Sales among the nation’s 500 largest restaurant chains increased 3.1 percent in 2024, but that was the lowest annual increase in 10 years – excluding the Covid-19-related slowdown in 2020 – according to Technomic’s 2025 Top 500 Chain Restaurant Report.
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April 27, 2025 — Permitting is a costly regulatory hurdle among many U.S. industries with money, time, opportunity and business are all lost to the cumbersome grind of securing the government’s approval.
Consider the seafood industry, which President Donald Trump just threw a life-jacket.
Despite the United States controlling over four million square miles of prime fishing grounds, nearly 90% of seafood consumed domestically is imported, contributing to a trade deficit exceeding $20 billion, according to the executive order.
At the POWERS Summit and Expo hosted by the American Association of Port Authorities, U.S. Maritime Administrator Ann Phillips addressed the financial and operational challenges posed by inconsistent federal permitting processes for aquaculture facilities.
She highlighted that varying enforcement practices by the National Marine Fisheries Service under the Endangered Species Act have led to unpredictability and increased costs for aquaculture operators.
Read the full story at The Center Square
April 27, 2025 — The Responsible Fisheries Management (RFM) seafood certification standard is being rolled into a new global standard dubbed Certified Seafood International (CSI).
The move marks the latest evolution of the RFM program, which was originally geared toward certifying Alaska’s fisheries as sustainable. Created in 2010, the program was transferred to the nonprofit Certified Seafood Collaborative in 2020 at the same time as it expanded its scope to cover fisheries across North America.
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April 24, 2025 — Significant proposed regulatory changes within the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), along with large layoffs that have occurred across the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) – which oversees the FDA – could greatly affect seafood importers, processors, and other industry stakeholders in the near future, according to a former FDA seafood specialist.
The recent HHS layoffs, which total nearly 20,000, include personnel with expertise in seafood, traditional foods, and labeling, “leaving the FDA with lack of expertise in these areas,” said Brian Ravitch, a senior regulatory advisor at Washington, D.C., U.S.A.-based law firm Olsson Frank Weeda who also worked at the FDA for 25 years, including time spent as a seafood specialist.
Read the full story at SeafoodSource
April 24, 2025 — Though most Canadian goods have been spared from the steepest of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs, Jason McLinton, who recently became president of the Fisheries Council of Canada (FCC), said the reprieve was no cause for celebration.
“There’s uncertainty, and business does not do well with uncertainty,” he said.
Read the full story at SeafoodSource
April 18, 2025 — Though Americans’ economic concerns are driving many consumers to make more meals at home, U.S. restaurants are still banking on seafood for growth, and several seafood restaurant chains are expanding throughout the country as a result.
The prevalence of shellfish grew 3 percent on U.S. menus year over year in 2024, driven mainly by strong growth from shrimp, according to market research firm Circana. Servings of “other seafood” rose 1 percent due to strong growth from calamari, but fish dishes fell 3 percent during the year.
December 5, 2024 — Early data analyzing U.S. shopping trends during this year’s Thanksgiving holiday weekend could be a harbinger of good news for grocery and food sales in December.
According to new research from the National Retail Federation (NRF) and data firm Prosper Insights & Analytics, 197 million people shopped – for either food or non-food items – during the five-day holiday weekend from Thanksgiving Day on 28 November through Cyber Monday on 2 December.
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December 2, 2024 — Facing dwindling domestic demand and potential new tariffs in the U.S., some Chinese seafood firms have begun to cast their attention toward Southeast Asia.
Guangdon, China-based Guolian Aquatic and Guangdong Evergreen – a conglomerate which produces and processes fish, shrimp, and aquafeed, – have targeted Indonesia as a location that may be able to offer more consistently lucrative business.
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December 8, 2023 — Conservation groups want NOAA Fisheries to ban imports from foreign fisheries that are not adequately working to prevent marine mammal bycatch.
“By continuing to allow imports that do not meet U.S. standards, [NOAA Fisheries] NMFS chooses business as usual over the survival of some of the most amazing species on the planet,” Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) Senior Attorney and Global Biodiversity Conservation Director Zak Smith said. “Because NMFS has failed to safeguard ocean biodiversity, future generations may never have the chance to protect invaluable marine life.”
Read the full story at SeafoodSource
December 7, 2023 — U.S. Senator Tom Cotton has introduced legislation that would ban the import of seafood and aquaculture products from China.
“Fishing and aquaculture is yet another industry the Chinese Communist Party is weaponizing for their own gain through blatant abuse and slave labor. This legislation will stop imports of this illicit seafood by imposing real costs on the Chinese government and the companies that aid them,” Cotton said in a statement.
Read the full story at SeafoodSource