Consumer and trade promotions, along with the Responsible Fishing Scheme (RFS) and other initiatives, are expected to increase consumption of United Kingdom seafood over the next three years.
In U.K. seafood authority Seafish’s Corporate Plan: 2015-2018, released this week, the group also provides details on how commercial fishermen training programs will help boost the reputation of U.K. seafood. Seafish was not able to provide comments to SeafoodSource on the plan due to the dissolution of the U.K. parliament on 30 March leading up to the General Election on 7 May. All government entities or those receiving government funds must refrain from commenting publicly on issues that may call in to question their political impartiality or be deemed to be using public resources for party political purposes, according to the country’s regulations.
Seafish plans to establish a Seafood Week, accompanied by an extensive marketing and public relations campaign, to “build the profile of seafood and to ensure it is valued by retailers and foodservice,” according to the plan.
Seafish will also expand its Fish and Chip campaign to target a wider foodservice market and further develop its National Fish and Chip awards. It will also continue to deliver its successful Fish is the Dish digital campaign by growing its social networks and web audience for its “Fish as Food” messages. Likewise, Seafish plans to expand its Fish as Food education program, engaging both schools and colleges.
In order for the seafood industry to take part in national promotions, Seafish will develop an online resource so industry partners can deliver their own Fish is the Dish campaigns.
“This will allow industry partners to promote their own seafood products to their local target markets, with downloadable resources that can be easily personalized to species, formats or provenance messages,” the Corporate Plan stated.
By April 2018, Seafish also plans to have 1,000 commercial fishing vessels accredited to the RFS, which will enable seafood buyers to source seafood that has been independently certified as having been harvested, handled and processed to industry-agreed, best-practice standards.
“RFS will provide the onshore supply chain with the ability to make informed decisions in respect to their responsible sourcing strategies and the development to a chain of custody, that will incorporate traceability and quality.” the plan stated.
Three retailers and/or foodservice companies will also be using the Risk Assessment for Sourcing Seafood (RASS) by 2018, according to Seafish. In addition to helping seafood buyers make informed decisions, RASS aims to provide accurate environmental data that can be “used to help increase understanding and formulate informed responses to incorrect claims,” according to the plan.
