Norway, Asda relaunch whitefish origin branding campaign

The Norwegian Seafood Council has reintroduced the "Seafood from Norway" campaign with United Kingdom retailer Asda

With recent research finding that U.K. consumers want to know the origin of their seafood, the Norwegian Seafood Council (NSC) has reintroduced a “Seafood from Norway” campaign with retailer Asda.

Visitors to selected Asda stores will find Asda’s own label Norwegian cod and haddock, supplied by New England Seafood, featuring the country-of-origin branding.

According to a press release, the NSC and Asda will also grow customer awareness through advertising and social media. Additionally, having found stronger demand for white fish in both Nottingham and Leeds, the campaign will include direct mail to 13,000 households in those two cities.

NSC U.K. Director Hans Frode Kielland Asmyhr said the research, which was part of a larger survey conducted in July to look at the changing demands in the country’s fish-and-chips sector, learned that sustainable fish is important to 87 percent of U.K. consumers.

While whitefish is a classic dish on U.K. menus, there is “still a long way to go to educate consumers,” he said.

“Fortunately, with the support of Asda and New England Seafood, we’ve developed clear packaging and powerful retail messaging – in-store and online alongside driving national awareness through social media,” Asmyhr said. “Equipping consumers with the right information means they can ‘vote with their feet,’ making buying decisions that take into account the future of the planet. We’re looking forward to seeing how the campaign goes, with the aim of rolling it out across the U.K. in the next few years.”

The 2021 NSC-Asda campaign is a build on previous endeavors the two worked on in 2019, a spokesperson confirmed.

NSC’s fish and chips survey found that just 24 percent of U.K. consumers knew what to look for when it came to sustainable fish in a fish and chip shop, while 53 percent are not sure they can tell the difference between cod and haddock.

Some 74 percent of respondents agreed that they would find it helpful for fish and chips shops to tell them more about the sustainability credentials of their dishes.  

Photo courtesy of the Norgwegian Seafood Council

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