The second annual Humber Seafood Summit in Hull, the United Kingdom, took a holistic look at the industry, from its sustainable credentials to the need for aquaculture development to consumer marketing.
Keynote speaker Richard Ford of The Grocer magazine looked at the relevance of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) to the industry and asked if the “whole-scale and fundamental reform” called for in the EU Green Paper can be achieved.
“[EU Fisheries Commissioner] Maria Damanaki told us recently that EU fish populations are being depleted to such an extent that children could face a future in which they see fish only in pictures, not on their plates,” he said. “She pointed out that 75 percent of EU fish stocks are overfished, a third are in a worrying state, and if no reform takes place, then only eight of the 136 stocks will be sustainable in 2022.
“Mrs. Damanaki has stated that a failure to deliver a new and workable CFP and to capitalize on opportunities to restore consumers’ faith in seafood would give other protein sectors an opportunity to steal market share and that is already happening,” explained Ford. “Kantar figures to the end of August 2011 show that UK seafood consumption fell by 1.8 percent during the year, while pork, chicken and beef all rose in popularity.”
Ford pointed out that a great deal of press and TV time has been given recently to the problems facing the fishing industry, with consumers urged to avoid many of the species they love such as cod and tuna. “The makers of Quorn, a micoprotein product, have taken full advantage of this by introducing ‘fish without the fish-in’ fish fingers, citing endangered species and food miles as reasons to shy away from the real thing,” he said.
“We need to improve the health of the industry in order to improve its reputation and change the headlines from ‘no more fish in the sea’ to ‘plenty more fish in the sea.’ If this is communicated effectively to consumers, then sales will increase. But information overload could have the opposite effect,” he warned.
Ford urged retailers to make seafood more relevant to the consumer, by offering alternative species, keeping them updated on the status of favorite stocks such as cod, and making labeling more simple to understand. He has a good point.
Communicating to the consumer was covered admirably by Emily Howgate of Seafood Choices Alliance, who looked at options for capitalizing on social media. She explained that there is a definite trend away from using traditional marketing methods such as advertising, direct marketing, cold calls, newspapers and TV, because today’s consumer talks a different language.
“People make hundreds of millions of online searches per day. They read blogs and tap into social networks to find answers to questions and even product recommendations. Social media is currently the most popular activity online,” she informed.
The rise in the number of smartphones and the need for bite-size information makes it imperative to rethink marketing strategies if companies want to attract attention. “People interactively use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube, and these are the new marketing tools,” said Howgate.
She cited the example of M&J Seafood, one of the main suppliers of seafood to UK restaurants. “M&J recently started tweeting chefs with daily updates about what is fresh and available and including photos and information about less familiar species. They also use photos of their staff and skippers of boats, to make the approach more personal. It’s much better than a fax and chefs find it more relevant — the information is in their pocket and they use it,” she explained.
UK fishmongers and fish-and-chip shops have also signed up to social media, advertising special offers, demonstrations, tastings and general information to keep their customers engaged and coming back for more.
“One of the most recent effective uses of social media was Hugh’s Fish Fight, which delivered the issue of sustainability to the masses. It used Twitter, Facebook, apps and viral videos, and within a very short time had 750,000 people signed up to support a ‘stop discards’ campaign,” said Howgate.
Birdseye and John West have successfully embraced the genre, along with environmental NGOs such as Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund. Retailers, restaurants, processors and others who are not engaged need to play catch-up fast if they do not want to lose out.
