In this episode, Professor Dave Little talks with Wesley Malcorps about his observational study of the messaging by companies at major seafood shows in Europe, Asia and America as part of the EU GAIN Project.

As part of the EU GAIN Project, Wesley Malcorps and other project partners visited seafood trade exhibitor booth messaging strategies in China, which is the largest seafood producer in the world by volume. They also observed trading booths in Europe and America. These are considered the major seafood consuming regions in terms of value.

They observed logos and word use on booths in Brussels, Boston and at three shows in China (Guangzhou, Qingdao and Shanghai) to determine the key messages communicated by seafood sellers to their buyers.

European and American seafood traders showed a high interest in “sustainability” messaging, which is driven by consumer demand for ecolabels and sustainable production practices, while Chinese traders showed a relatively higher interest in messaging around “safety” and “quality”.

The use of “safety” messaging can be traced back to concerns around food safety and efforts to address public concerns related to public health scandals.

The use of “quality” messaging is strongly associated with signalling about the natural characteristics and health benefits of seafood consumption in the Chinese market.

This podcast is also available as a video on YouTube:

A longer version of this article is available on the University of Stirling website

Read more about global seafood trade messaging in this article:

Malcorps, W., Newton, R.W., Maiolo, S., Eltholth, M., Zhu, C., Zhang, W., et al. (2021). Global Seafood Trade: Insights in Sustainability Messaging and Claims of the Major Producing and Consuming Regions. Sustainability 13(21), 11720. doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/su132111720

Read more about the environmental performance of seafood in the following articles:

Gephart, J.A., Shepon, A., Ziegler, F., Henriksson, P.J.G., Golden, C.D., Metian, M., et al. (2021). Environmental performance of blue foods. Nature. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03889-2

Nhu, T.T., Schaubroeck, T., De Meester, S., Duyvejonck, M., Sorgeloos, P., and Dewulf, J. (2015). Resource consumption assessment of Pangasius fillet products from Vietnamese aquaculture to European retailers. Journal of Cleaner Production 100, 170-178. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.03.030

Ziegler, F., Winther, U., Hognes, E.S., Emanuelsson, A., Sund, V., and Ellingsen, H. (2012). The Carbon Footprint of Norwegian Seafood Products on the Global Seafood Market. Journal of Industrial Ecology 17(1), 103-116. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1530-9290.2012.00485.x