Fresh industry leaders are optimistic despite economic challenges because produce, meat, and seafood categories continue to show resilience and growth, driven by consumer interest in health, protein, and fresh foods, along with opportunities for retailers to enhance merchandising, technology, and collaboration.
By: Rick Stein, Vice President, Fresh Foods, FMI
The mood of fresh food leaders is becoming clearer as the second quarter gets underway. After attending a string of fresh industry conferences, like Southeast Produce Council’s Southern Exposure, Seafood Expo North America and the Annual Meat Conference, I’m happy to report considerable optimism even in the face of challenges.
Industry leaders are hopeful because fresh food overall is outperforming non-fresh. Consumers are generally embracing fresh categories despite the impact of price inflation. The health and well-being halo around fresh has been shining even brighter. Retailers and suppliers are emphasizing collaboration efforts to help drive performance.
Let’s dive deeper by looking at the latest trends in produce, meat and seafood.
Produce:
Produce has come off a good year, not just in dollars but also in units, according to FMI’s 2026 The Power of Produce report. This positive news means the gains weren’t just driven by inflation. Produce has benefitted from the consumer’s growing interest in health and nutrition. One of the brightest spots is the performance of berries, which have benefitted as produce finds its way into more uses across meals and snacks. An ongoing challenge is that vegetables have lagged fruit in sales momentum.
Meat:
The meat category continues to perform well. Meat was the largest and fastest-growing perimeter department in 2025, as outlined in FMI’s The Power of Meat 2026. Success is being driven by strong consumer demand. The category benefits from a bigger consumer focus on protein and more of an emphasis on meat in the government’s new food pyramid. Shoppers eye meat as supporting wellness, including for strength and energy.
Seafood:
Seafood performance has been mixed compared to meat and produce. Dollar sales saw positive year-over-year improvement in 2025 for the first time in several years, while seafood unit sales were up, but only by 0.7%, as reported in FMI’s 2026 The Power of Seafood. The main challenge is that consumers view seafood prices as high. Retailers are hopeful that shopper concerns have peaked and that the situation will start to improve. They believe it’s crucial to keep solidly investing in seafood departments, including in variety, because frequent seafood customers are highly valuable to the supermarket overall. These shoppers tend to have higher incomes and consistently drive bigger basket sizes across categories. Retailers want to maintain this loyalty.
How to Boost Customer Experience and ROI
The fresh industry has near-term opportunities to further drive performance. We’ve all been hearing about the K-shaped economy and its diverging impacts on upper- and lower-income consumers. The industry can tailor fresh solutions for both groups based on their specific financial situations.
Retailers have opportunities to boost merchandising and displays across fresh departments, further enhancing customer experience through color, aroma and presentations.
Meanwhile, from a technology perspective, retailers can identify which applications will advance customer experience, assortments, product quality and business ROI.
Continuing the Discussion at FreshForward
FMI’s upcoming FreshForward conference, August 10 to 12 in St. Louis, Missouri, will further amplify these topics. FreshForward is FMI’s annual gathering of senior-level retailers and suppliers in the fresh sector, featuring opportunities for networking and collaborative breakout groups.
This year’s event will showcase three highly important education tracks: Connecting with the Consumer, Fresh Merchandising and Practical Technology.
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