Seafood supply chains: problems and solutions

What are the biggest problems in our seafood supply chains? What are the driving forces behind these issues, and what can and should be done?

In this step, the FoodUnfolded® team interviewed Margaux Friocourt and Yves-Marie Origlia of Fish Klub Berlin to discuss these questions and learn more about their approach to making their seafood supply chains traceable and sustainable.

What does a seafood supply chain look like from start to finish?

The seafood supply chain will vary depending on the product (e.g. frozen vs fresh, farmed vs wild caught) and who or where its traded to. On average, seafood supply chains typically have up to 10 to 15 intermediaries* between the fishers and farmers before reaching the end consumer.

Take for example, frozen fish – a French company will buy something like 3000 tonnes of fish a day from, say, Iceland. Frozen fish is usually sold to the consumer by weight. So what can end up happening? This fish from Iceland will then be sent to China (where the process is more cost efficient), where they will be injected with more water so the fish gets heavier. The fish would then get sent back to France. So the quality of fish is very poor, the environmental footprint is unbearable, and you will have frozen fish that’s being charged more because it’s three times heavier due to the frozen water.

Aquaculture is another story. Because fish is created from nothing, there also comes a lot of waste along the supply chain. For example, you need feed to farm salmon, but where does that feed come from? You’ll have fish like anchovies, for example, that are caught somewhere in Peru or along the coast of Africa, which will be sent to China to be transformed into dry feed, and then sent back to countries like Scotland, where there’s big salmon production centres that uses those products, only to be sent to France or Germany to be sold. And if it’s frozen, it could be sent back to China again to be injected and brought back. By the time the fish is on our plates, it’s already travelled thousands of kilometres, multiple times around the world – so these logistic chains make no sense.

_{*Intermediaries or middlemen are the individuals or groups that work between farmers, processors, distributors and retailers. They fulfil a variety of connecting and facilitating roles. These groups usually take the name of wholesaler, trader, distributor, importer or broker.}

Why do businesses continue operating their supply chains like this?

At the end of the day, people in the chain are just trying to think as cheaply as possible to be able to reach as many parts of the world. Unfortunately, the price point is always what will ruin an industry, because people want to consume seafood and due to a lot of reasons, they’re going to buy cheaper seafood.

For example, a lobster from Maine or Canada is going to sell in Europe for 23 EUR – frozen. But if you buy fresh lobster from Brittany in France, it’ll sell for roughly 51 EUR – more than double the price. Here in Berlin, there’re a lot of chefs that cook lobster rolls. At the end of the day, price will make a difference in Berlin, especially where people are looking for a very low price for good food. Then you have to make a choice as a chef: what do you do with your food cost? Will you take the lobster from Brittany, which will cost you 51 EUR per kilo? Or do you take the one from Maine, which has a worse impact but is cheaper?

So if you want a cheap product, you can get it from anywhere around the world. It won’t be more expensive to get it from the other end of the world because the volume is there, and it’s usually coming from the industry.

How does volume and scale of supply affect the sustainability of seafood?

When big industrial trawlers go to sea, they can catch maybe 3 million tonnes of fish in one day. Even if they need to travel 5000 kilometres away, the large volume of catch would make transport costs incomparable. Just for a reference point, we work with artisanal fishers, who own small boats with three people on board. Per day, they catch between 80 and 200 kilograms of fish.

You also see this with farmed seafood like salmon and shrimps. Businesses know they can reach a certain volume of sales so they will produce as much as they can. Producing seafood massively makes sure the price is very competitive, so businesses can earn the most market shares. The bigger the volume, the cheaper the product – and the cheaper the seafood, the more likely people are going to purchase and consume it.

A Michelin-starred chef in Berlin once told us, “Why should I buy the sea bream fish from you if there is also very good sea bream selling at a wholesaler for a lower price?” He realises that the product might be cheaper from a large wholesaler. But what’s the impact of buying cheaper? Where’s that product coming from? That sea bream fish may be part of a long supply chain. And at the end of the day, that cheap product would likely have a higher environmental, social and human impact – caught regardless of a lower fish stock, regardless of the fair labour costs.

Why is lack of traceability a problem for seafood supply chains?

When you have so many intermediaries, it’s more difficult to trace the origins of your seafood. You might ask, “Where’s the fish coming from?”, and receive the response, “The sea.” It might be funny the first time, but then you ask it again and again – and nobody knows. Without traceability, it’s difficult to track problems like illegal fishing and labour, fish fraud, and bycatch.

You mentioned you work with artisanal fishers – how would this supply chain be different?

The supply chain is much more transparent, because we’re not working with a long line of intermediaries. You need at least one intermediary between the fishers themselves, because you can’t buy seafood directly from the boats – at least, not on a big scale. We try not to have more than 3 intermediaries, because we want to work as directly as possible to the resource itself. The closer you are, the more you can ensure its sustainability. You end up working with only passionate people who have the same goals and the same standards – people who respect fishing stocks and the way people are working.

But you see a difference in quantities – for example, when you arrive at fishing markets, you have catch from industrial fishing on one side and artisanal fishing on the other. The industrial section is much larger than the small amounts of fish from coastal fishing boats. Just to give you some numbers for reference: in France, artisanal fishing makes up 70% of the fleet*, 52% of jobs in the fishing industry, but only accounts for 14% of the catch.

But in the last few years, more and more artisanal fishers are having difficulties with their catch. A lot of the fishers we work with have come back to us on our morning supply runs, telling us, “We just don’t have this fish today, we don’t have the quantity you want.” There’s more boats, and less catch.

_{*Fleet: the boats used in the fishing industry.}

What alternatives help you ensure a sustainable, but also consistent, supply?

We work with different suppliers to make sure we increase the chances of getting the right fish at the right time. We also buy on pre-orders, so we know what we need to buy – instead of the common practice by bigger industries, which is to buy big stocks and then trade and sell big volumes for the biggest margin.

Part of our work is to also talk to our customers about fish so that we can change at least some minds. We typically work with high end gastronomy, and so we bring them fish alternatives to take them out of their comfort zones. Now we have some kitchen chefs telling us, “We need 5 kilos of white fish for ceviché, with a maximum price of this. Depending on what’s fished that morning and available at the market, we then decide on what will be brought back and imported to Berlin. We’re trying now to push this way of consuming – meaning, you want a white fish for your dish? Then we have this whitefish because that’s what’s available today, because that’s what the sea gave us – instead of fishing according to a demand.

How does demand impact seafood supply chains?

The biggest problems in seafood supply chains comes from high demand – when a species is so well asked for, the supply chain will adapt itself to bring the products from point A to point B, where the customers want them. When demand is so strong and the profit is high, then there’s money involved – and as long as there’s money involved, there will be problems with illegal fishing, traceability and fish fraud, and the bycatch that goes with it as well. If you can fish 100 tonnes of tuna, sold at maybe 500,000 EUR per fish at a market, then who cares if you catch other fish along the way? But this is the problem.

To give you a counter example, we stopped selling salmon in our shops in 2021. To minimise problems from high demand in the supply chain, we need to offer our customers alternatives. So we replaced our salmon supply with trout from eco-friendly aquaculture. Or instead of Hake, we supply Pollock. And we saw that it changed the way our customers were consuming – in the beginning when we opened our first shop in 2019, people only consumed salmon and cod – now they don’t ask for it anymore. If you start implementing changes, giving consumers alternatives, then you can see a change in demand. It’s not easy to change, but the industry can also create these trends – there’s always money for marketing, but maybe that money is not used to create the right trends.

_{*Hake are members of the cod family and can be found at depths of over 1,000 metres.}

_{*Pollock: fish from the cod family, usually found in the northern seas (especially the North Atlantic)}

Is there anything consumers can do themselves?

They can just ask questions. When they buy, ask how the seafood was caught (with what fishing techniques), where does it come from, and when was the catch? If the seller can already answer these questions, that means you have a higher likelihood of consuming sustainable seafood.

FishKlub is a specialised sustainable fish importer and distributor. Since 2018, they have been importing fish and seafood delicacies directly from France (Brittany and Atlantic) to Berlin. They offer only high quality products caught by passionate fishermen using sustainable fishing methods. Behind every product from their producers is a story that we bring to Berlin and in Germany. They stand for making seafood more accessible by educating their audience.

Authors: Jane Alice Liu, Margaux Friocourt and Yves-Marie Origlia