Talk about mixed messages. It was not that long ago that the mainstream press in the United Kingdom was telling its readers not to eat cod. Stocks were endangered, it was reported, so supplies should be conserved. The best way to do this was not to purchase cod or products manufactured from it.
It was in vain that processors such as Youngs Bluecrest pointed out that the cod they sold were caught in waters where stocks were sufficient for fishing to take place. This didn't enter into the equation at all; don't eat cod was the message that consumers heard.
Flash forward to the present. At this week's value-added seafood conference in London, Morten Hyldborg Jensen, executive VP of sales and marketing at Aker Seafoods in Norway, told delegates that cod from the Northeast Arctic stock in the Barents Sea are plentiful and the spawning biomass is at its highest level since 1948. The haddock stock there is also in very good condition, he said.
Aker Seafoods is Europe's largest whitefish harvesting company with its own fleet and sourcing network. It owns 11 percent of Norway's cod quotas and supplies cod and value-added cod products to European consumers. The company has even developed superchill and MAP (modified atmosphere packaging) technology whereby it can supply fresh cod landed in northern Norway by road to supermarkets in Denmark with an eight-day shelf-life.
So, according to Jensen, there is no cod shortage; quite the opposite in fact. And this is not the first time we have been told that there is plenty of cod to catch. But will the press be telling its readers to start eating cod again? There is not much chance of that. Bad news sells, we're told, so why ruin a good sales story by telling the other side of the situation?
This may seem a cynical viewpoint, but time and time again the seafood industry is painted black. Yes, of course, many fish stocks are endangered. Overfishing is rife and, at times, it seems as though fishermen are bent on destroying their own livelihoods by the unsustainable methods they practice.
However, time and time again consumers are told not to buy certain fish species, sometimes with good reason, sometimes not. In the case of cod the "advice" was wrong.
What can be done to correct stories that have been proven untrue? There is no mechanism to ensure that good news about the seafood industry is published to a wide consumer audience and even if there was, the consumer would only end up confused. Do I buy cod or don't I buy cod?
It's a sad situation. We can only hope that, in this case, U.K. consumers will go out and buy what is probably their favorite fish.
October 4, 2009
Confusing consumers about cod
