Editor’s note: SeaFood Business Associate Editor James Wright is in Washington, D.C., this week reporting from the seventh World Seafood Congress.
So much of the collective energy in addressing sustainability is spent asking and answering complicated questions. In a panel discussion on Tuesday titled “Making Sense of Sustainability” at the World Seafood Congress in Washington, D.C., 40-year industry veteran Wally Stevens posed a rather interesting question: “Who do we need to make sense to?”
Good question.
The executive director of the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) understands the challenges that seafood producers, distributors and buyers face in their respective quests to green up their businesses with the seemingly counter-intuitive goal of selling more fish. The World Health Organization recently recommended that people eat more seafood. How to do that is another good question.
Stevens’ list of stakeholders that need sensible answers from GAA on sustainability was predictably lengthy: farmers, processors, the supply chain, the environmental and social justice communities, financial institutions, the standard setters, the marketplace, etc.
Consumers were the last-but-not-least entry, and Stevens saved them for the end because, in the end, consumers are the most important group; they’re also the hardest to reach. So let’s turn Stevens’ question around: When talking about sustainable seafood, ask the question: “Whom do consumers want to hear the answers from?”
The answer is retailers. Restaurants are largely for experience, satisfaction and, often, indulgence — we go there to leave worries behind, not worry about questions. But the supermarket or the local specialty shop is where consumers place their trust, and it’s where the tough decisions are made on price, quality, freshness and other key attributes.
Those of us who think about seafood every day can probably name a handful of organizations that are trying to influence consumer opinion and behavior. The person on the street would rather their local shop tell them such things and make sense of it for them. They’ve got enough on their plates.
As Phil Walsh of Miami-based Alfa Gamma Seafood Group, and a retail veteran himself, wrote in a recent SeaFood Business Point of View column that retailers are “the brand.” However, a multinational corporation or independent store owner wishes to communicate sustainability to customers — be it signs, eco-labels or partnerships with the closest aquarium — they do so knowing that some of those customers are probably hearing the words “sustainable seafood” for the first time. The message they get is part of the brand. If you’re wondering why so much attention from sustainability certification outfits like the GAA and Marine Stewardship Council is spent on the retail sector, this is one reason why.
Little traction has been gained with consumers on sustainability because of the lack of a universal definition. Is the product from a responsibly managed fishery? Is it from an abundant stock? Is it local? And who determines whether the seafood is sustainable? The government? The Greenpeace blimp?
Peter Hajipieris, chief technical, sustainability and external affairs officer for U.K.-based Iglo Foods Group, might have provided the best answer yesterday. Which is, essentially, that we don’t have the answer.
“Many of us think that we have the right answer to sustainability. We do and we do not — we only have part of it at any given time,” said Hajipieris. “Sustainability in the fish industry will always have many interpretations. I call it sustainable fisheries development because there is no end point. It is a continuous development process — and in fact, it started decades ago. Our industry and the whole planet, in other sectors, is still learning the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of becoming more sustainable.
“The trick is to be part of a sustainable development platform that does not become unaffordable — the consumer always pays,” he continued. “If it becomes too costly, too fast, they will reject it and market adoption will be slow.”
Hajipieris is right.
