Waitrose, a major supermarket chain in the United Kingdom, has been championing greater fish consumption to its myWaitrose loyalty cardholders in a big way.
Its Fish Friday offer of a 20 percent price reduction on all fish and shellfish sold online and from its serviced fish counters has been running for some months now. But more recently it emailed a three-for-GBP 10 (USD 12.47, EUR 11.28) offer on selected Easy to Cook fish to customers on its MyWaitrose email list.
Waitrose promotes these products as “offering speedy ideas for dinner tonight.”
“Simply pop your fish in the oven and serve with your most favorite veg,” the email suggets, invitingly.
There were eight dishes on offer, with seven being Waitrose own label products and one branded as Charlie Bigham’s. The Waitrose own label dishes were priced from GBP 4.19 to 5.00 (USD 5.27 to 6.24, EUR 4.72 to 5.64) and weighed 260 to 350 grams each. The Charlie Bigham’s dish – two salmon en croutes – was the most expensive, selling for GBP 6.49 (USD 8.10, EUR 7.32), but it weighed more than the others at 420 grams.
The Charlie Bigham's dish was rated more highly by customers than Waitrose’s own-label dish of two salmon en croutes which, together with the recently launched Waitrose own label Smoked Haddock and Mustard Rarebit, were the least popular dishes on offer. The other Waitrose own-label dishes in the promotion were Cod Fillets and Crème Fraîche and Salmon with Parsley Lemon and Herb Crumb.
The fish used in the Waitrose Easy to Cook fish dishes are three of the U.K.’s favourite species: cod, haddock and salmon. The cod and haddock dishes are prominently labeled with the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) logo (with the exception of the smoked haddock and rarebit dish).
The supermarket reinforced its sustainable fishing message in another email to myWaitrose customers in the middle of September. This email gave the guarantee that all 65 species of fish and shellfish it sells are responsibly sourced and, by 2017, will be independently certified as such.
The supermarket stated that its fresh and frozen cod and haddock were imported from Iceland and Norway and were all MSC-certified, while its salmon are sourced from a small group of carefully selected farms in Scotland where tidal flows “ensured the highest welfare and minimized the impact on the environment.”
Waitrose also said it fully supported the Greenpeace campaign to end the sale of tuna caught with the use of fish-aggregation devices (FADs) in conjunction with purse seining and would not introduce any own-label or -branded tuna products produced from tuna caught with FADs.
“All Waitrose own-label skipjack tuna is pole-and-line caught from f[FAD]-free fisheries in the Maldives," the company said. "Since April 2013, all the skipjack tuna used in our business, both canned and in salads and sandwiches, has been certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council.”
The supermarket’s English rainbow and organic brown trout supplier, Trafalgar Fisheries, “shared the common aim of ensuring that all our fish are reared to the highest welfare standards with respect on the environment.”
Waitrose, which was voted the best supermarket of 2016 by the consumer organization Which, has the reputation of being an upmarket retailer. It has always made a big play on its “green” credentials and has stated publicly that it believes its customers want to be confident that the fish they are buying are sustainably sourced. Notably, its stores are situated in the more affluent areas of the U.K., where customers are far more likely to be have been influenced by publicity on overfishing and how fish farming may be damaging wild fish stocks.
Of course, it’s an open question whether supermarket shoppers actually care whether the fish they buy are responsibly sourced, or whether they are more concerned about taste and price - even among customers who are more well-off.
Regardless of their customers' preferences on sustainability versus price, Waitrose evidently believes that even affluent customers are put off from eating more fish because they are not sure how to prepare and cook it, so yet another email was recently sent to myWaitrose customers containing recipe suggestions.
Although they get no mention in the sustainability email or the Easy to Cook offer, shellfish including prawns, lobster and squid are all mentioned in the email containing the recipes.
Waitrose is doing its best to increase fish consumption by its customers. The seafood industry can hope that this works – and that other supermarket chains up their games. After all, supermarkets have become the place where the bulk of the British population shops for seafood.
