Seafish offers up marketing support to UK’s quayside, mobile fish sellers

With fishing companies being particularly affected by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, U.K. businesses with quayside and mobile fishmonger sales outlets have been given access to new promotional guides and materials developed by public body Seafish that seek to drum up more consumer interest in locally-caught seafood.

The move is part of a nationwide marketing campaign to encourage consumers to eat more of the fish and shellfish caught around the country.

Announcing the new support, Seafish acknowledged that the drop in exports, the adoption of social distancing and closure of foodservice businesses have significantly impacted the seafood supply chain, and this has led many fishermen to look for alternative ways to sell their catch.

“There’s no doubt that coronavirus is having a major impact on seafood supply chains and Seafish is working to support seafood businesses through these challenging times – to help keep the fabric of the U.K. seafood supply chain intact,” Seafish Director of Operations Aoife Martin said. “Fishermen can sell certain types of seafood directly to consumers for personal consumption, so we’ve produced simple guides to help them understand the requirements for quayside sales in England and Scotland."

Martins said the hope is that these materials help those looking to move into direct selling "while their traditional routes to market are unavailable.”

"Our guide for mobile fishmongers or fish vans outlines what they must do to meet the requirements that apply to food businesses, as well as providing information on additional food hygiene measures related to COVID-19,” Martin said. “We’ve also shared posters and social media graphics to help these businesses encourage consumers to buy locally-caught seafood and let customers know when they have fresh seafood to sell."

To further encourage consumers to eat more U.K.-caught fish and shellfish, Seafish and the government’s Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) last month launched the marketing campaign #SeaForYourself, which is scheduled to run until May.

Seafish is also sharing content on its consumer marketing platform Fish is the Dish. This includes letting consumers know where they can purchase seafood and sharing recipes and tips to help them prepare it.

“Encouraging U.K. consumers to eat more seafood more often is the core of Seafish’s consumer marketing work. Promoting fish and shellfish from U.K. waters is even more important as we face the unparalleled situation with coronavirus, which is causing challenges for the seafood industry and for consumers with food shopping becoming more difficult than normal,” Seafish Corporate Relations Director Hazel Curtis said. “The campaign won’t solve all of the problems the seafood industry is facing, but we hope to help the seafood sector by encouraging consumers directly and by helping the sector to support and encourage consumers, by offering guidance on buying, cooking, and eating species that they might not be confident about preparing.” 

Photo courtesy of Phil Friar/Shutterstock 

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