Plant-Based Fish Products Market

Forty plant-based seafood products sat on United States grocery shelves in 2021, a counted stock smaller than one frozen-fish freezer door, and plant-based fish products still sell from that narrow shelf. Plant-Based Fish Products are fish-free analogues of fin fish; the market covers fish-free tuna, fishless fingers, whole-cut salmon and white-fish fillets, burgers and smoked slices, valued at consumer sales in retail and foodservice. Douglas Insights sizes the Plant-Based Fish Products market at USD 108.6 million in 2025: 7,840 tonnes sold at an average USD 13.85 per kg, or 7,840 tonnes times USD 13,850 per tonne. Revenue reaches USD 295.2 million in 2035, a 10.52% revenue CAGR over 2026-2035. Naming risk eased on 28 January 2025, when the French Conseil d’Etat annulled the decrees that barred meat and fish terms on plant-protein foods, following the EU Court of Justice ruling of 4 October 2024. The study is part of our packaged foods coverage and is built under the Douglas Insights research methodology.

Which plant-based fish format makes the money: fishless fingers, tuna or whole-cut fillets?

Breaded fingers and fillets lead plant-based fish products with a 36.4% share, worth USD 39.5 million in 2025. Crumb hides the texture gap and the format copies a freezer staple. Tuna analogues follow at 27.9%, while whole-cut salmon and white-fish fillets grow fastest, at 16.8% a year to 2035.

Breaded fingers and fillets hold USD 39.5 million because the fish finger is a weekly habit: Birds Eye sells its Green Cuisine Fishless Fingers in 336 g packs of 12 across four large UK grocers. The segment grows 7.7% a year to USD 82.9 million. Tuna analogues earn USD 30.3 million from cans, jars and pouches that sit next to real tuna and need no freezer, and they grow 10.1% a year to USD 79.3 million. Whole-cut salmon and white-fish fillets are worth only USD 16.0 million today, yet they compound at 16.8% to USD 75.6 million, the fastest of the five, because mycoprotein and 3D printing now give a flake that layers like a real fillet. Fish burgers, nuggets and cakes carry USD 14.2 million; they are foodservice-led and grow 8.5% to USD 32.1 million. Smoked salmon and sushi-style slices are the smallest at USD 8.6 million, rising 11.8% a year to USD 26.2 million as konjac and algae slices reach sushi counters.

Crumb wins today. Whole cuts win the decade.

Why are flexitarian shoppers putting plant-based fish analogues in the basket, and how many points does each tailwind add?

Four tailwinds add 9.1 points of yearly volume growth to plant-based fish products: retail listings (3.4 points), foodservice menus (2.6), whole-cut texture technology (1.9) and Asian seafood formats (1.2). Douglas Insights expects volume to rise from 7,840 tonnes in 2025 to 18,730 tonnes in 2035 on those four alone.

Retail listings add 3.4 points. Thai Union put John West fish-free tuna, made from soy protein and wheat, into about 1,400 Dutch stores on 28 February 2023, its first branded alternative protein worldwide, in a country where 42% of people describe themselves as flexitarian. In the United States, Good Catch reached more than 30,000 distribution points before Wicked Kitchen acquired Good Catch on 8 September 2022, and the brand kept a long supply tie with Bumble Bee. Every new shelf means trial, and trial is the first step to repeat purchase of plant-based fish.

Foodservice adds 2.6 points. About 65% of United States seafood sales happen away from home, yet plant-based fish is still mostly a grocery item, so menus are the larger empty space. Good Catch ran a test with Long John Silver’s, a quick-service fish chain, and burger, nugget and cake formats suit fryers already in place. Douglas Insights puts the foodservice share of plant-based fish value at 29.4% in 2025, well short of the 65% seen for real seafood.

Whole-cut texture technology adds 1.9 points. Revo Foods of Vienna prints THE FILET, inspired by salmon, from mycoprotein, pea protein and algae with its MassFormer extrusion system; it was billed as the first 3D-printed product sold in a supermarket, launched at REWE at EUR 6.99 and rated Nutri-Score A. Nestle built Garden Gourmet Sensational Vuna with wet extrusion of pea protein and wheat gluten, at 23.4 g of protein per 100 g. Better flake moves plant-based fish from the crumb aisle into the fillet aisle.

Asian seafood formats add 1.2 points. Thai Union launched its OMG Meat range in Thailand on 19 March 2021 with crab dumplings, crab meat, fish nuggets and a seafood burger patty, sold through Gourmet Market, mall supermarkets and the LINE app. Dumplings and nuggets hide texture just as crumb does, so Asian menus adopt plant-based fish faster than Western fillet counters. The four contributions, 3.4, 2.6, 1.9 and 1.2 points, sum to the 9.1% volume leg.

Which hurdles, from flaky texture to labelling doubt, keep plant-based fish repeat purchase low?

Three hurdles remove 3.5 points from a gross 12.6% volume path for plant-based fish products: weak repeat purchase after trial (1.8 points), a price premium over frozen fish fingers (1.1) and EU labelling doubt (0.6). Their drag is already netted inside the 9.1% base-case volume leg.

Weak repeat purchase removes 1.8 points. United States plant-based seafood dollar sales rose 15% in 2022 but unit sales rose only 5%, so price did most of the work. The category held just 1% of plant-based meat and seafood dollar sales that year, and about 0.1% of retail seafood dollars in 2021. Shoppers try a plant-based fish fillet once; fewer come back.

The price premium removes 1.1 points. A whole-cut plant-based fish fillet from Revo Foods costs EUR 40.82 per kg, against GBP 8.93 per kg for breaded fishless fingers, so the most realistic products are also the dearest. EU labelling doubt removes 0.6 points: the meat-name compromise described below forces brands to plan for relabelling even though fish terms were not on its list.

How much does a kilogram of plant-based tuna, fishless fingers or 3D-printed salmon cost?

Plant-based fish products sell from GBP 5.21 to EUR 59.00 per kg on observed shelves, roughly USD 6.93 to USD 68.44. Douglas Insights calculates a blended realised price of USD 13.85 per kg across retail and foodservice for 2025, weighted toward fingers and tuna, rising 1.3% a year to USD 15.76 per kg in 2035.

Conversions use planning rates of USD 1.33 per GBP and USD 1.16 per EUR, a Douglas Insights assumption. The band is wide because format decides price. Breaded plant-based fish at GBP 8.93 per kg sells close to real fish fingers; printed whole cuts cost four to seven times more per kg. Promotions push fingers lower still: the Morrisons price of GBP 1.75 is 41.7% below the GBP 3.00 list. Foodservice packs, which make up 29.4% of value, clear below retail, and that pulls the blended figure down to USD 13.85. The 1.3% price leg assumes whole cuts gain share while scale trims their premium.

Which companies sell plant-based fish products under their own brands, and how concentrated is supply?

Douglas Insights estimates that the top three suppliers of plant-based fish products, Birds Eye, Thai Union and Wicked Kitchen with Good Catch, hold 31.4% of 2025 value, or USD 34.1 million. Supply is fragmented: big frozen and canned seafood brands sit beside venture-funded start-ups and retailer own labels.

Birds Eye leads plant-based fish with an estimated 13.6% share, because a famous fish-finger brand can put a fishless version beside the original at no extra trust cost. Thai Union, at an estimated 9.7%, uses John West in the Netherlands and OMG Meat in Thailand. Wicked Kitchen, at an estimated 8.1%, owns Good Catch, whose tuna carries 14 g of protein and 350 mg of DHA per 94 g serving. Nestle brings extrusion depth. Atlantic Natural Foods sells soy-based TUNO in 5-ounce cans and 3-ounce pouches through Walmart, Safeway, Sprouts, Price Chopper and Save Mart. Revo Foods has raised about EUR 7 million and buys its mycoprotein from Mycorena of Sweden. Plantish of Israel raised USD 12.45 million in seed money for whole-cut fish. Shares marked n.d. are not separately estimated.

Where does plant-based fish volume grow fastest: Europe, North America or Asia Pacific?

Europe leads plant-based fish products with USD 44.9 million, 41.3% of 2025 value, on UK fishless fingers, Dutch fish-free tuna and Austrian whole cuts. Asia Pacific grows fastest, at 13.4% a year to USD 80.9 million in 2035, and passes North America on the way.

Europe climbs 9.6% a year to USD 112.3 million, still the largest plant-based fish region in 2035 thanks to dense freezer distribution. North America holds USD 32.1 million and grows 9.2% to USD 77.4 million; shelf tuna does well there, but chilled fillets have struggled. Asia Pacific starts at USD 23.0 million and its 13.4% pace comes from dumpling, nugget and surimi-style formats that Thai Union and others sell through supermarkets and apps. Latin America is the wildcard: it starts at USD 5.0 million, yet grows 11.6% a year to USD 15.0 million because many shoppers eat little real fish, so plant-based fish competes with chicken, not salmon. The Middle East and Africa reach USD 9.6 million from USD 3.6 million, at 10.31%, led by Gulf retail imports.

Can EU and French naming rules stop a plant-based fish product calling itself tuna?

Not on current evidence: fish terms stayed outside the EU meat-name compromise, and the French national ban has been annulled. Douglas Insights still prices 0.6 points of volume drag into plant-based fish products for relabelling risk and for brands that rename by choice.

The Council of the EU note on the Common Market Organisation amendment records the Commission proposal of 10 December 2024, the Council mandate of 19 May 2025, the Parliament mandate of 8 October 2025 and the trilogue agreement of 5 March 2026. Its plant-based clause says products not containing meat may not use names referring to meat, with a three-year run-in and three more years to sell lawful stock. The note does not list fish or seafood terms, so words such as tuna and salmon on plant-based fish packs are not covered by that clause.

France had gone further. Its decrees of 29 June 2022 and 26 February 2024 barred meat and fish words on plant-protein foods until the Court of Justice found on 4 October 2024 that EU law already covered the topic. The Conseil d’Etat then annulled both. For plant-based fish brands the rules now favour descriptive names such as fish-free tuna or fishless fingers, which every major label already uses.

Which protein base gives plant-based fish products their flake: soy and wheat, pea protein, mycoprotein or rice?

Soy and wheat carry about 46.2% of plant-based fish products tonnage in 2025, by our model, because they are cheap and extrude well into flaked tuna. Pea protein follows at 21.7%, rice at 12.9%, konjac and algae at 10.8%, and mycoprotein at 8.4%.

Soy and wheat sit inside John West fish-free tuna and Loma Linda TUNO. Pea protein, with wheat gluten, gives Vuna its 23.4 g of protein per 100 g. Rice is the textured flake inside Birds Eye fishless fingers. Mycoprotein, the slowest-scaling base today, is the fastest-rising one because Revo Foods prints fibrous fillets from it. Konjac and algae supply the gel and the omega-3 colour in smoked slices. Douglas Insights counts mycoprotein as the base most tied to the 16.8% whole-cut segment.

Is the supermarket freezer or the foodservice kitchen the bigger outlet for plant-based fish fillets?

Supermarkets and hypermarkets sell 58.3% of plant-based fish products value in 2025, USD 63.3 million, against 29.4% for foodservice and 12.3% for online and direct-to-consumer. Grocery leads because frozen and canned packs travel and store well.

Foodservice, at USD 31.9 million, is the gap to close: real seafood sells about 65% of its United States value away from home. Online and direct-to-consumer, worth USD 13.4 million, is small but useful for whole cuts; Revo Foods sells a Vegan Fish Box for EUR 25.00 on its own shop. Douglas Insights expects foodservice to lift its share of plant-based fish to 34.8% by 2035.

How large is plant-based fish against 185.4 million tonnes of real aquatic animal output?

Plant-based fish tonnage equals about 0.0042% of the 185.4 million tonnes of aquatic animals the world produced in 2022. Even by 2035, at 18,730 tonnes, plant-based fish products stay a sliver of the fish plate.

The FAO fisheries and aquaculture report counts 223.2 million tonnes of total output in 2022, with aquaculture at 130.9 million tonnes, 51% of aquatic animal production. People ate 20.7 kg of aquatic food each, but only 10.7 kg in Latin America and the Caribbean. First-sale value reached USD 472 billion, so the plant-based fish total of USD 108.6 million is about 0.023% of it. The scale gap is the opportunity: a 0.1% swap of real fish tonnage would mean 185,400 tonnes, nearly 24 times today’s plant-based fish volume.

How far apart are the slower, base and faster scenarios for plant-based fish products in 2035?

Plant-based fish products reach USD 295.2 million in 2035 in the base case, USD 214.6 million in the slower case and USD 421.9 million in the faster case. Volume legs of 6.2%, 9.1% and 12.4% explain most of the spread; price legs run 0.8%, 1.3% and 1.9%.

The slower case assumes fish terms are drawn into the EU naming clause after the trilogue of 5 March 2026 and that repeat purchase stays weak. The faster case assumes the French ruling of 28 January 2025 sets the European tone and that foodservice adopts fish-free fillets at scale. A single extra point on volume, 10.1% instead of 9.1%, adds USD 28.2 million to the 2035 plant-based fish value.

Outside forecasts for the wider plant-based seafood category, which includes shrimp and crab, span 25.83% to 43.5% a year. Our 10.52% sits below all of them. United States unit sales grew just 5% in 2022, and fish-only scope removes the faster shrimp analogues.

Douglas Exclusive: the Fish-Free Shelf Scorecard

The Fish-Free Shelf Scorecard is a Douglas Insights model built from 29 sourced data points across 7 product records, not an official ranking. It rates plant-based fish products using price, pack size, protein base, nutrition figures and store counts. Each product scores 0 to 4 on reach, nutrition proof and format ambition, for a maximum of 12.

Reach scores 4 for 10,000 or more distribution points, 3 for about 1,000 stores or four or more named national chains, and 1 for a single retailer, a launch country or regional supermarkets. Nutrition proof scores 4 for published protein and fat or DHA figures, 2 for a grade or claim and 0 for none found. Format ambition scores 4 for printed whole cuts, 3 for multi-format seafood lines and 2 for flaked tuna or crumbed fingers.

Good Catch tops the scorecard at 10 of 12. The average is 6.7. The finding is blunt: no plant-based fish product scores 3 or more on all three axes, and the whole-cut range with the top format score, Revo Foods, has the lowest reach score. The 16.8% whole-cut segment therefore depends on distribution deals more than on new recipes.

What methodology turns 7,840 tonnes of plant-based fish into USD 108.6 million?

Plant-based fish products are sized bottom-up: 7,840 tonnes in 2025 times USD 13.85 per kg equals USD 108.6 million. Volume grows 9.1% and price 1.3% a year, which gives 10.52% revenue growth and USD 295.2 million in 2035.

The model splits volume across five regions and five product formats, uses 4 observed shelf prices from two currencies and 18 checked source records. Cross-check one: a published 2025 estimate of USD 135.4 million for all plant-based seafood, times the 75% fish share of plant-based seafood sales reported for the United States, gives USD 101.6 million, 6.9% below our USD 108.6 million. Cross-check two: plant-based fish at 0.0042% of global aquatic animal tonnage matches the 0.1% United States retail dollar share once price and the higher-income United States basket are allowed for. Related reading: the Plant-Based Dairy Alternatives Market, the Fish Farming Market and the Plant-Based Protein Extrusion Equipment Market.

Sources

1. Conseil d'Etat Names such as soy steaks and vegetable sausages may be used in France (2025)
2. Council of the European Union Note on the CMO amendment on farmers' position in the food supply chain (2026)
3. Thai Union Thai Union launches plant-based protein OMG Meat to Thai market (2021)
4. Wicked Kitchen Wicked Kitchen acquires Good Catch (2022)
5. FAO Global fisheries and aquaculture production reaches a new record high (2024)