reLAKSation 283. Callander McDowell
Oscar time: As the film industry celebrates its success on Oscar night, we, at Callander McDowell, would like to use this opportunity to recognise achievements in the aquaculture industry. However, we have only one nomination: Marc Barelier.
M. Barelier is probably unknown to most of you who read the reLAKSation viewsletter. He was also unknown to us at Callander McDowell. So why do we intend to acknowledge his achievements?
M. Barelier works for the French supermarket chain Casino as Seafood Division Director and this week he announced that Casino have launched a campaign aimed at winning over consumers to its range of farmed seafood. According to IntraFish, Casino will be labelling portions of farmed salmon, bass bream catfish and tilapia with the slogan “Product selected for a preserved ocean”.
Whilst many supermarket chains are scrambling around to prove their sustainability credentials either by banning the sale of fish species or stocking MSC approved species, it appears that only Casino has realised that the only way to safeguard fish stocks is to ensure that consumer demand can be satisfied with alternative supplies and that the only viable alternative is from farming.
Sadly, the fish industry has fallen into a trap baited by fisheries scientists who know nothing of the aquaculture industry. Their view is that the only solution to over-fishing must come from within the fisheries sector itself. Therefore, if too many fish are being caught, then controls on the catch, such as quotas and days at sea must be enforced. The MSC is a just an extensive of this view since it endorses those fisheries which it believes are managed to its’ satisfaction. What this view ignores is consumer demand.
What M. Barelier has recognised is that if consumer demand can be satisfied from elsewhere, then the excessive pressure on wild fish stocks will be reduced without the need for such restrictions. If farms can provide consumers with the fish they want at a price they are prepared to pay, then consumers will not demand fish caught from endangered stocks. Instead, these stocks will be given the breathing space to recover as consumers obtain their fish from farms. M. Barlier is undoubtedly correct that the more fish bought from farms, the more likely that the oceans will be preserved.
It is just a shame that more people like Marc Barlier do not have the vision to see this opportunity and this is why he should be immediately acknowledged by not only the aquaculture industry but the fisheries industry too with the highest industry recognition.
Cornish pasty: If you ask British people what food they associate most with the county of Cornwall in the South West of Britain, the answer will undoubtedly be the Cornish Pasty.
Cornish Pasties are good regional food much like Lancashire hot pots and Yorkshire puddings. These are foods that are entrenched in local culture and should be recognised, yet surprisingly none are protected by Europe’s quality food schemes. This is because they are so popular that they are no longer regional foods but have a national identity that means they can be manufactured anywhere. The European Union’s Protected Geographic Indication (PGI) would have safeguarded their geographic identity.
According to IntraFish, 30 UK food products are currently in the process of applying for PGI status and Cornish sardines are the one that is most advanced in the process now being in the final consultation stage. However, in common with several other foods applying for PGI as well as a number that have already received it, most consumers would not immediately associate the food with the locality. Cornwall is known for its fresh fish, partly due to its extensive coastline which must be one of the largest for a British county and most sardines might be expected to be caught off its shores due to its southerly position but the words Cornish and sardines are not something that has an immediate connection. Cornwall is just where the fishing boats are.
One British supermarket chain does sell fish labelled as coming from Cornwall, including sardines but any association with specific quality is undermined as the sardines are sold as having been previously frozen.
The fundamental question is do Cornish sardines have sufficient cache that suppliers of other sardines try to pass then off as Cornish? We do not think so, in which case, there seems little point in trying to protect a name which ultimately depends on where wild caught fish are landed.
Seemingly, the attempt to gain PGI status for Cornish sardines may have an ulterior motive. David Pascoe of Penzance based Cornish Sardine told IntraFish that he expects the PGI designation to have a positive effect on sales adding that the PGI label says there’s something special about your product.
We, at Callander McDowell, think that Mr Pascoe will be disappointed. Certainly, the Scottish salmon industry has not found PGI status to be of any real benefit. After a great deal of initial hype, Scottish salmon’s PGI status is rarely mentioned and although the certification belongs to the SSPO, it is not even declared on their web site.
The Scottish industry applied for PGI status because they believed that overseas producers were trying to pass off their salmon as Scottish and gain any premium associated with the Scottish label. They thought that consumers were being misled into buying imported salmon because labelling allowed imported salmon to be labelled as ‘produce of the UK’ if it had been processed there. However, changes to the labelling legislation meant that imported salmon had to be labelled as such enabling consumers to see which salmon was Scottish and which was not. As origin is not the most important factor when consumers choose which salmon to buy, the new labelling did not deter most consumers from buying imported fish even when thy could see it was imported and not Scottish. The PGI status made no difference to salmon buying and we do not believe that it will be any different for Cornish sardines. Certainly Cornish fishermen are not helped in gaining the expected market edge if their sardines are being sold as previously frozen since this undermines the consumers’ anticipation of freshness and quality. This is more important than any European food designation.
We were wrong: In the last issue of reLAKSation, we suggested that organic production had not yet expanded to include species such as sea bass. By total coincidence, the next day we visited a Waitrose store to find organic sea bass given centre stage on the fresh fish counter (£16.99/kg). Although no one has corrected our error, this is not even the first organic sea bass to appear in the UK. Last year Graig Farm Organics won a gold medal at the Soil Association Food Awards for their organic sea bass sourced from a 2 hectare farm off the coast of Marseille.
Meanwhile, the third annual report on progress towards delivering the Scottish Executive’s organic action plan has just been published. The aim of the plan is that Scottish farmers should supply 70% of demand for organic food in Scotland.
Seafoodintellignce.com report that Scottish Deputy Minister Sarah Boyack has highlighted that the organic market is expanding at over 30% a year as compared to 3% for the whole food sector giving rise to further opportunities.
Certainly, the independent Scottish salmon industry has taken this on board and the report claims that over the last twelve months six farms and one hatchery have converted to organic production, leaving the non-organic industry to continue with it Norwegian owned consolidation.
We, at Callander McDowell, have always argued that independent salmon farmers should use niche specialisation rather than trade measures to guarantee their margins however, we do wonder whether this belated rush to convert to organic may be a little bit too late. We wonder whether the market for organic fish is growing at the same rate as for other organic foods because we continue to observe long term discounting of organic salmon in the UK market. This may be a strategy to encourage more consumers to buy organic fish or a response to the availability of too many fish. Whichever, it is clear that in exactly the same way that the non-organic sector needs to invest in marketing, so must the organic sector too if it wants to encourage more people to eat its fish and pay more for the privilege.
The organic label is no guarantee of higher prices and margins just as the Scottish label has proved. As more organic food comes to market, prices will be squeezed as organic becomes the norm. Already one store group is selling organic salmon at exactly the same price as its non organic fish, albeit so far in smaller packs only. Perhaps, this is indication of what is still to come!