1. Innovations in seafood supply chains:
Community supported fisheries and consumer-facing traceability
Subproject 1: Exploring consumer-facing traceability as a risk mitigation strategy for seafood producers in Nova Scotia
Christina Callegari
Rational: Fish harvesters are increasingly facing complex informational and sustainability demands. These are, in part, related to increasing market, regulatory and climate change risks. The aim of this research project is to study two innovative seafood governance approaches, namely community supported fisheries (CSF) and consumer-facing traceability (CFT), to ascertain their potential for helping to mitigate these risk and contribute to triple bottom line sustainability outcomes.
Background:
Seafood is the most traded food commodity in the world, and with the rise of globalization, seafood supply chains (SSC) are continuing to increase in complexity. Concerns over seafood safety have dominated supply chain discourse in the past, however, additional concerns have arisen more recently. With increasing examples of seafood mislabelling and fraud, consumers are increasingly more concerned with the seafood they are purchasing. This complexity, plus the lack of enforcement and regulation has also encouraged illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Additionally, the recent expose on slavery at sea has brought into question the labour conditions and well-being of fish harvesters supplying seafood products. Lastly, complex SSC with global origins have increased the difficulty in estimating the state of fish populations globally, causing additional concerns over seafood sustainability.
A world-wide, highly complex seafood industry leads to elevated informational demands for supply chain actors. Globally, but specifically in the United States and the European Union, regulatory requirements along the SSC are shifting towards increasing traceability. Additionally, the seafood is industry is increasingly confronted with informational demands from consumers for more traceability and fully transparent seafood products. Traceability is the structured flow of information through a value chain, and is used as a tool that retains records of product movement, so it may be accessed at later date or in a distant place. While this management tool has been used for decades, consumer-facing traceability (CFT) has newly emerged as a critical management tool for tracing product information from the “boat to plate,” thus increasing and verifying transparency.
It will tackle the following four questions:
1. To what extent is CFT present in Nova Scotia?
2. Which fisheries or aquaculture facilities are at most risk for mislabeled seafood and fraud?
3. Under what conditions and how does CTF work to help producers?
4. How willing are producers to partake in this strategy?
Management problem:
The seafood industry and its economic benefits are important for the fishing industry and growing aquaculture sector in Nova Scotia. However, with the increasing regulatory and market demands, these industries may not be prepared to satisfy these expectations. For example, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans conducted a market risk analysis in 2007, concluding that Nova Scotia was one on the five provinces most at risk of losing its export market share. With the increased informational demands, but lack of involvement in emerging traceability systems with full chain transparency, a significant amount of risk is created for producers who are unable to meet regulatory and market demands. Additionally, the lack of involvement or implementation of CFT in Nova Scotia does not allow for consumers to make informed decisions to avoid seafood associated with fraud and ensure product safety. It is possible that Nova Scotian fishermen and aquaculturalists, who export much of their catch or sell locally may reduce this regulatory and market risk by engaging in CFT. These producers may also increase their accountability, decreasing the over presence of fraud and IUU fishing. Additionally, with increased consumer demand for CFT, producers may be able to engage in these new emerging markets, verify their sustainability claims, and add value to their business. Engaging in traceability systems may set a successful fish harvester apart from one that does not partake in these strategies.
Figure 1. Five core functions for CFT developed by Future of Fish
Framework and methods:
The five core functions for full chain traceability, developed by Future of Fish outlines the components that are necessary to address regulatory, market and environmental issues (Figure 1). This framework will be used to determine the potential for CFT as a risk mitigation strategy for producers by examining their presence and feasibility of implementation within the SSC. Supply chain mapping will be performed as a critical first step in analysing the SSC in Nova Scotia. Semi-structured interviews and surveys will be conducted to examine producer’s views of CFT, their willingness to participate in it, the feasibility of implementation, and perception of risk mitigation.
Potential results:
It is speculated that producers will be at more risk if they are not currently involved in supply chains that have all five core functions of CFT. CFT will provide risk mitigation and benefits to producers by increasing their accountability, ensuring compliance to new regulations, and having the ability to sell to new emerging markets. Most producers who care about the product they are selling and who that product is sold to, as well as the well-being of their business, will be willing to engage in this business strategy.
Research questions:
The research project explores under what context and for which fisheries and aquaculture operations is CTF a feasible risk mitigation strategy for producers in Nova Scotia?