Editor’s note: SeafoodSource Editor Steven Hedlund is attending the National Fisheries Institute’s 2012 Global Seafood Market Conference in Miami this week.
Millions of dollars in sales may separate Incredible Fish and Quirch Foods, but both Miami-based companies face the same challenge — fraud.
Product that’s inaccurately labeled for weight, origin and species is a big, big problem in this industry. Yet it’s not an insurmountable problem. And both Incredible Fish and Quirch Foods and doing their part to fight fraud by simply saying, “We won’t tolerate it.”
“I’m going to run my business the right way,” said Tim Lycke, owner of Incredible Fish, a wholesale seafood distributor located a stone’s throw from Miami International Airport. “Customers who appreciate that — those are the type of customers I want.”
And he has them. Wegmans, the Rochester, N.Y.-based retailer, with 79 supermarkets in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, is among Lycke’s customers. So are Hy-Vee, Whole Foods and Costco. Incredible Fish sells predominately fresh seafood — including tuna, swordfish, grouper, snapper, mahimahi and stone crab — 85 percent of which is sourced from Central and South America.
Located just minutes away, Quirch Foods is a much larger operation, dealing with all major proteins (beef, chicken, pork and seafood) and bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales (the company is expected to pull in USD 800 in sales this year). But fighting fraud — more specifically, delivering to consumers what it says it’s delivering — is a company priority.
In fact, it’s more than a priority, it’s a marketing message that Quirch Foods is featuring prominently on its packaging and in its advertising and using to set itself apart from the competition. The company, a distributor of refrigerated and frozen foods to retailers and foodservice operators across the U.S. Southeast and Caribbean, is running an ad guaranteeing that its Panamei-branded seafood is 100 percent net weight. The TV spot displays a scale holding a handful of shrimp and a glass of water, and the tagline under the scale says, in Spanish, “Do you want to pay for water or seafood?”
Seafood represents just 17 to 18 percent of Quirch Foods’ business. But it’s growing steadily, thanks, in part, to delivering a brand that consumers can trust.
“We keep it simple,” said Jorge Roza, marketing manager for Quirch Foods, referring to the company’s marketing message. “If we have nothing to hide, than let’s show it.”
If trust is the foundation of this industry, than more companies should take a page out of the playbooks of Incredible Fish and Quirch Foods and be 100 percent upfront about labeling for weight, origin and species. You may lose a few customers to price along the way. But those you gain because they trust you and your brand will be around for a long, long time.
Editor’s note: A special thanks to both Incredible Fish and Quirch Foods for showing me their facilities on Tuesday.
