Seafood has a new follower

By Joe Cooper (Fleet Researcher, Seafish)

In the English Channel, a fisherman posts a picture on Instagram of a freshly caught Dover sole.

Within minutes it’s sold, and 18 hours later the fisherman is tagged in a picture of the same fish, now pan-fried in caper butter.

The home cook – 170 miles away – thanks the fisherman for his hard work and the tasty catch.

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With consumers told to stay home through most of 2020, direct and online sales like this have grown. This model has provided a lifeline for some fishermen struggling to cope with the economic shocks caused by Covid-19, but how do fishermen access these routes to market, and do they have a future?

During the Covid-19 pandemic, direct sales offered a complementary alternative to the traditional supply chains that were shaken up by national and global lockdowns. Faced with uncertainty, lack of export opportunity and low prices, some businesses seized these new routes to market bringing fresh, home-caught seafood to the plates of consumers across the UK. Innovative online platforms have been key to helping fishermen, fishmongers, processors, retailers and wholesalers tap into the domestic market, connecting producers and consumers.

In the 2020 Seafish fleet and processing sector surveys, around a quarter of participants said they had to change sales and distribution operations in response to Covid-19. They described local deliveries, using online marketing and selling direct as ways of coping; some also said the new initiatives have been so successful that they intended to continue with them, even as markets recover.

To support the seafood industry through the pandemic, the rules around direct sales were relaxed. Fishing businesses were able to sell direct to the public, up to a limit of 30kg per transaction in England and 25kg in Scotland. This allowed fishing businesses to tap directly into domestic markets and ensured that the public had access to fresh seafood while the supermarket shelves emptied.

A common factor of successful direct sales in any industry is marketing and reaching consumers through online platforms. It’s not unusual these days to see fishing businesses marketing on Facebook or Instagram. Here, they can share their passion for their quality catch and stories that show the personal side of the seafood sector.

Social media is proving a valuable marketing tool. It’s easy to access by businesses and consumers alike, whether the catch is advertised to the family down the road or halfway across the country.

Sarah and Darren Ready

Sarah Ready of Two Brothers Ltd, a family-run inshore fishing business from Brixham, explained:

The general public who are buying our fish really genuinely seem interested in the way the fish is caught, the day at sea, what goes into fishing behind the scenes, our ups and downs.

Sarah and Darren’s boat, The Two Brothers.

At the start of lockdown, Sarah’s normal sales routes began to dry up and business wasn’t looking hopeful for Two Brothers Ltd. Sarah and her husband Darren, skipper of their inshore boat MFV Two Brothers BM516, made the difficult decision to tie up for three weeks. As the lockdown continued, Sarah watched the growth of online sales and home deliveries for organic food and saw similarities with their own business. Sarah explained:

I did some research on the statistics for the growth of organic food sales and modelled our business on an organic-type product. We decided to go down the high-end premium route for our prime product.

Taking inspiration from organic food box deliveries, the couple launched their own direct sales initiative, Ready Fish Box, in May 2020.

The idea was simple: to provide local customers, the community, hotels, restaurants and fish buyers freshly caught Brixham fish. They made a successful funding application to the Domestic Seafood Supply Scheme (DSSS), allowing them to buy an electric hybrid fish van so they could make local deliveries.

Growing their customer base has taken time and effort. The first step was to get to grips with social media and marketing; as Sarah explained:

I had never really done Facebook before and my husband had never been online. We embraced positive feedback with pictures to engage with our buyers and I now devote a lot of time to Instagram.

Key to building engagement on social media is regular contact with followers and providing a personal service. Sarah posts all sorts of updates on their Instagram profile, from photos to livestreams, showing customers how the fish is caught and what goes on behind the scenes. This ensures that customers feel close to the product.

Ready Fish Box has built quite the customer base online, as Sarah said:

With the social media we now have, we could pull a mobile delivery service for all of our fish within a couple of days.

Alongside their direct sales, Sarah and Darren also sell their catch through Pesky Fish, an online seafood marketplace that delivers from inshore boats to doorsteps across the UK.

Pesky have the integrity of the way in which they deliver quality through transportation and they do the nationwide delivery.

Pesky’s digital marketplace links producers and consumers, helping fishermen connect with home cooks, professional chefs and retailers. Set up in 2018 but adding home deliveries to its list of services in May 2020, Pesky Fish has quickly grown as a popular digital platform with over 8,000 Instagram followers. Fishermen add the day’s catch to the digital marketplace, open from 8pm until 9am every Sunday to Thursday, where buyers can bid.

One buyer commented on Instagram:

Back in the day I used to sit at my computer waiting for gig tickets to come on sale, now it’s fish.

Fishing is a difficult and time-consuming job, and finding the time to invest in marketing and social media may be challenging for some. Ready Fish Box has the advantage of being a family business, so while Darren works at sea, Sarah can manage the business administration and marketing. Sarah explained:

We are very lucky that my husband is a fantastic skipper and engineer, and I can do the paperwork and branding. We manage to cover all aspects. Many fishermen, although fantastic fishers, will struggle with the day to day of direct selling.

Sarah points out that the Ready Fish Box model may not work for everyone but also highlights options that could help enable some to reach these markets.

Selling into a co-op or marketplace like Pesky is vital for those that do not have the help of the PR and media and sales acumen for selling direct, or in areas where there is an inability for fishermen to get a decent price for the catch.

Andy Matchett, Operations Manager at Pesky Fish.

Pesky Fish and other similar online platforms have sprung up regionally and nationally to support fishing businesses sell direct and to nudge consumers towards producers. Consumers can follow fishermen catching their favourite fish through livestream videos, pictures and stories on social media. Interactive maps like the one created by Discover Seafood locate fishmongers and fishermen near consumers and highlight home delivery options. Seafish has also provided social media marketing workshops to support fishermen looking to get to grips with this new set of skills.

Sarah and Darren’s journey has taken significant investments of time and energy, but she says it’s worth it:

The ability to sell direct for us, getting the maximum amount for each fish, is vital with the spiralling costs of running a vessel. This has given us complete control of how we market and the sales route we go down. We would never go back to selling all of our fish to one large trawler agent.

Covid-19 drastically changed the shape of our supply chains, but it also opened up new opportunities. It brought fresh, local seafood directly into people’s homes, showcasing the delicious product fishermen can offer and creating new interest in and passion about seafood.

As we recover from the economic shock of Covid-19 and adapt to new trading relationships, this new appetite amongst British consumers for fresh home-caught seafood could be vital.

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Two Brothers reach customers UK-wide through the following platforms:

Local - Social Media

Regional - peskyfish.co.uk

National - directseafoods.co.uk

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Find out more:

Covid-19’s impact on industry: www.seafish.org/insight-and-research/ covid-19-impact-on-seafood-industry

Guidance on direct sales: www.seafish.org/trade-and-regulation/ covid-19-support-for-the-seafood-industry/ selling-seafood-directly-to-consumers