Why Americans Fell Out Of Love With Canned Tuna

While traditionally, canned tuna was known to be a staple in American homes, consumption rates have fallen dramatically in the past couple of decades. Since 2000, per capita tuna consumption dropped 45.7%. That’s largely due to shifts in consumer preferences, but also a larger awareness around the industry’s steep market consolidation, issues around sustainability and transparency, and a major price-fixing scandal that lasted for years. In 2015 and 2019, Bumble Bee and StarKist were fined $25 million and $100 million respectively by the Department of Justice. Still, in 2020, the U.S. imported about 637.9 million pounds of tuna, 71% of that canned, the most of any country in the world. The industry is dominated by a few multinational conglomerates, the largest being Thai Union Group, also the owner of Chicken of the Sea. In 2020, the industry saw a significant rise in canned tuna demand, fueled by the Covid-19 pandemic as Americans turned to this affordable, protein-rich food. However, that rise has since gone back down. Chapters: 00:00 — Introduction 02:00 — Tuna industry 04:39 — Thai Union Group 07:05 — Controversy 09:07 — Tuna’s challenge Produced by: Darren Geeter Animation: Christina Locopo, Senior Managing Producer: Tala Hadavi Camera by: Victor Febres, Michael White Additional Sources: Law360, World Wildlife Fund, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, U.S. Department of Labor, “The Industrialization of Fisheries,” George Kent, 1986, The Brookings Institution