Nearly three-fourths of seafood consumers say origin labeling influences their purchases of seafood, according to recent research from the Norwegian Seafood Council.
Recognizing this trend, a number of governments around the world are legislating for greater transparency across supply chains.
According to the NSC, this pressure from both consumers and governments is causing the seafood industry to find ways it can provide consumers with information about seafood provenance and sustainability, largely leaning on digitizing information to make it happen.
To that end, QR codes on products are replacing barcodes at grocery stores, offering retailers a “huge opportunity,” according to the NSC, in the seafood information they can make available at consumers’ fingertips, including its place of origin, what feed the fish was raised on, and how to cook it.
Norwegian Seafood Association Director of Aquaculture and Market Access Kjetil Hestad said that QR codes give consumers “the possibility of information.”
“Where [consumers’] salmon or cod comes from is something that consumers more frequently want to know,” he said. “These are the important, underlying questions that can be answered by QR codes.”
Whether consumers actually use QR codes or whether retailers can successfully raise awareness about the technology is up for debate, Hestad said, but he said consumer education is vital and needs industry-wide support on a larger scale.
Retailers are also using algorithms to assess and predict demand and streamline inventories, minimizing losses and making sure suppliers have what they need at the right times, the report found.
The NSC’s “Oceans of Change: Seafood trends from 2024” report, released earlier this year, highlighted that such retailers as Amazon, Walmart, and Target are using generative AI to personalize product recommendations and develop new products and services, optimize pricing and inventory levels, and create targeted marketing campaigns.
Beyond QR codes and complex algorithms, the NSC also said that delivery apps and omnichannel services like “click-and-collect” options are driving change in seafood purchasing, especially as they become more mainstream.
“These trends have only served to accelerate the existing taste for convenience [post-Covid], which has grown into a huge segment across all reaches of consumer society – seafood included,” NSC said.
The council cited data from global intelligence platform Statistica, which is expecting the online food delivery market to reach USD 1.22 trillion (EUR 1.1 trillion) in 2024, with a predicted compound annual growth rate of just over 10 percent, resulting in a projected market volume of USD 1.79 trillion (EUR 1.6 trillion) by 2028. Statistica further expects grocery delivery services to reach a market value of USD 790 billion (EUR 706.3 billion) in 2024.
Retail use is not the only way the industry is employing technology, however, with ...
