In 2020, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.-based tinned seafood company Fishwife Tinned Seafood Co. entered the seafood market in response to a growing interest in the space among digital influencers and foodies.
Fishwife CEO and Co-Founder Becca Millstein, a former marketing professional who specialized in brand partnerships, recognized an opportunity to offer products that are not only shelf-stable and high in protein but also boast a clean label and impressive nutritional profile.
The company aimed to elevate the reputation of tinned seafood in the U.S., Millstein said, hoping to get American consumers to view tinned products in the way Spanish and Portuguese consumers view high-quality conservas products.
Before getting off the ground, though, the company needed to develop a name, eventually landing on Fishwife, which pays homage to the wives of fishermen who historically sold their husbands' catches at markets. These women were known for their assertiveness and business acumen – qualities that Millstein said resonate with the brand's ethos. Millstein said the name reflected both a connection to traditional seafood culture and a modern, empowered approach to business, as Millstein’s business is a female-led company.
“We found this word by just Googling seafood terminology, and it was originally a completely neutral term [in] the 16th century that referred to the wives of fishermen who sold their husband's fish at the market," she said. "Because their fresh fish was so perishable, they gained the reputation of being bossy, loud, and foul-mouthed, swearing a lot to try to move their fish as quickly as possible. Then, over the years, it evolved into a gendered insult for women who are very bossy and loud. The cool flip side of it is those fish wives generally had more access to essentially running their own businesses since their husbands were out at sea.”
After developing the branding, Fishwife began selling smoked albacore tuna and salmon sourced from the U.S. Pacific Northwest. The brand quickly expanded to include Spanish sardines and other products sourced from Europe, leveraging the expertise of generational canneries.
Currently, approximately two-thirds of Fishwife's product by volume comes from European sources. The company takes a lot of inspiration from European conservas, but the company believes it separates itself from those markets by employing a unique approach to branding, with a focus on a modern, community-driven model that traditional canned fish brands rarely put into practice.
This strategy has created a cultivated and dedicated following, according to Millstein, with Fishwife maintaining close relationships with its customers through direct-to-consumer sales and engaging content.
“We now have a community of more than 350,000 people online,” Millstein told SeafoodSource. “That is such a core part of the business and has ended up differentiating everything we do from the other canned fish brands because we're building alongside our consumer base. Along with that thread, we have this … incredibly engaged fan base. They're buying hundreds of thousands of dollars of lifestyle merchandise from us, for example, which has never happened with a seafood company before.”
A significant milestone for Fishwife came when it inked a partnership with Whole Foods, which became the company's first national retail partner in January 2023. Whole Foods, known for its rigorous seafood sustainability standards, has helped Fishwife reach a broader audience while ensuring its products meet high environmental and quality benchmarks.
Fishwife's dedication to sustainability is evident in its sourcing practices, which involve a rigorous vetting process with multiple layers of scrutiny, and requiring either Marine Stewardship Council or Aquaculture Stewardship Council certifications. This commitment ensures that the company’s products are not only of the highest quality but also environmentally responsible, Millstein said.
"We are honored to work with Whole Foods, whose standards align with our commitment to sustainability and quality," Millstein said. "Their recent expansion of seafood sustainability standards to include all canned fish underscores the importance of this partnership."
Fishwife’s national distribution through Whole Foods has helped the company understand U.S. regional trends better, Millstein said. Strong sales were anticipated in coastal areas like in California and New England, but surprising demand has emerged from regions such as the Midwest, and particularly in the state of Pennsylvania. Conversely, the U.S. Southwest have been more challenging to penetrate.
As the company and tinned fish sector as a whole continue to grow, Millstien said Fishwife plans to introduce more innovative flavors and products, while remaining focused on the U.S. market, where she said there is significant work to be done in changing consumer perception and behavior in regard to canned fish.
“We think of it as a core part of our mission to use the form factor of canned fish to help encourage people to diversify their seafood consumption and try out new species,” she said. “I think we're helping the industry as a whole by having that mission of taking pressure off species like tuna, salmon, and shrimp. We carry those products in our product line, as it would be insane for us not to, but we also have a very broad species offering and are really looking to help people expand their horizons in that way.”
