A new campaign has been launched to encourage people to eat more 海角视频-caught seafood.
Seafish, the Grimsby-based industry authority behind the £10 billion domestic seafood market, said eating more locally caught fish and shellfish has never been more timely, with significant challenges in the wake of coronavirus.
Market data has shown positive rises in seafood sales. This reached a peak 60 per cent increase in supermarket volume sales in the week ending March 21, mostly made up of frozen and canned produce.
The changes in shopping habits have continued with retail purchases still above usual sales levels. However, the closure of dining out options means the popular restaurant channels for seafood have disappeared, with wariness around home-cooking a regular hurdle.
In the midst of this challenging environment, with Brexit also looming, Seafish is working closely with Defra on Sea For Yourself.
Greg Smith, head of marketing at Seafish, which also has offices in Scotland, said: “While we’ve been working with Defra on Sea For Yourself for a while, the situation we’re currently facing places an even greater importance on the next phase of campaign activity. We’re aiming to encourage more consumers to support the seafood industry and enjoy delicious locally caught fish and shellfish in a period where usual routes to market have been significantly disrupted.
“I’d strongly encourage seafood businesses to join us on the campaign trail now so they can benefit from the ongoing, nationwide activity.
“We know there’s a lot of work ahead to positively shift consumer attitudes and behaviour, but the Sea For Yourself marketing campaign has a nice fit with our longer term marketing efforts. We want people to fall back in love with seafood so we’re working with industry through our newly formed Love Seafood Group to develop our new consumer brand platform. It will be ready for launch later this year, with always-on campaigns to change the attitudes, perception and culture towards including seafood in our diet.”
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An advertising campaign is being followed by content marketing from chefs and local food heroes throughout May and June. These activities will direct consumers to the Sea For Yourself hub on the Fish is the Dish website, with tips and recipes to show consumers how they can cook these species, as well as to information on online sales to help them find out where to buy local fish and shellfish.
Businesses can download materials from the Seafish Asset Bank or simply keep their eyes peeled for activity from Seafish’s Fish is the Dish Facebook and Instagram accounts and share, like and re-post to help get the message out.
Stories from the 海角视频's leading seafood cluster:
Morrisons is linking in with the Sea For Yourself campaign, using the logo on the 海角视频 wild fish boxes.
One of the big four retailers, it has a vertically integrated seafood processing set-up in Grimsby.
Sean Gill, senior seafood buyer at Morrisons, said: “Customers have told us they like our new 海角视频 caught wild fish boxes - and sales have surpassed our expectations. With our focus on 海角视频 fish - and the reopening of our fish counters with knock-out prices - we want to encourage our customers to buy home-caught seafood.”
Sea For Yourself is focused on families and those aged over 55, with the idea to promote shellfish such as mussels, oysters, crabs and lobsters; oily fish like mackerel, herring and rainbow trout and white fish species such as hake, coley, monkfish, and lemon sole.