The College of Maine, with funding from the U.S. Division of Agriculture (USDA) and NOAA Fisheries, is launching the first-ever nationwide evaluation of seafood advertising and marketing practices in the US. The American Seafood Harvesters Advertising Practices Survey goals to convey consideration to the function that seafood harvesters play within the nation’s meals programs and, ultimately, inform future investments within the sector.
The survey being launched in March 2023 is designed for any seafood harvester or enterprise within the U.S. that participates in a state or federal industrial fishery and sells not less than a portion of their catch on to customers, eating places or establishments, or sells to sellers who determine them because the harvester. The survey, which is being mailed to six,600 harvesters, follows an preliminary spherical of analysis that was performed in 2021 and confirmed that 11% of all seafood harvesters in the US instantly market their catch.
Whereas the industrial fishing sector within the U.S. is critically necessary to the economic system, meals safety and cultural identification of many coastal communities, seafood typically stays poorly built-in into efforts to strengthen native and home meals programs. One purpose for that is that, in distinction to the agricultural sector, there isn’t information on how seafood harvesters market their catch and due to this fact it’s an invisible a part of the meals system.
“We regularly speak about how necessary information are for fisheries conservation and administration. Information are additionally necessary for describing our nation’s meals programs and making certain that seafood is a part of the dialogue,” says Joshua Stoll, UMaine assistant professor of marine coverage and principal investigator of the examine.
The USDA has been amassing information about the place farmers promote their harvest since 1976 by way of the Farmer-to-Client Direct Advertising Act. These information have helped to tell USDA’s funding in native and regional meals programs, together with within the allocation of $133 million to small- and mid-sized farming operations in FY23 by way of the Farmers Market Promotion Program and the Native Meals Promotion Program.
Information from the American Seafood Harvesters Advertising Practices Survey will assist convey visibility to the dimensions and variety of direct advertising and marketing practices and, sooner or later, could inform future investments, assist develop focused technical help and determine impacts of latest rules on the industrial seafood sector in the US. Moreover, amassing information will assist inform fishermen, researchers and policy-makers concerning the state of direct advertising and marketing efforts and the traits of these customers and entrepreneurs.
“This work helps unpack the completely different pathways seafood takes from our oceans to the ultimate shopper. Understanding these pathways doc the advantages to the nation of U.S. fisheries by way of meals manufacturing and meals safety and contribute to the NOAA Nationwide Seafood Technique. This venture additionally leverages strengths of the three organizations: USDA’s worthwhile expertise in various advertising and marketing practices survey work; College of Maine’s, by way of their Native Catch Community, contacts and continued engagement with native fishing companies across the nation; and NOAA Fisheries’ understanding of fisheries and seafood information,” says Sarah Shoffler, one of many NOAA Fisheries leads on the survey venture.
The survey interval will likely be open from March to June 2023. Eligible entities will obtain a postcard within the mail informing them concerning the survey, and also will obtain a survey type with a person ID and a hyperlink to entry the survey on-line.
If there are entities that didn’t obtain a postcard however consider they need to have, contact Advani at [email protected].
A webinar offering details about the goals and construction of the survey is being organized on March 29, 2023 at 12 PM ET (9 AM PT). The preregistration hyperlink for the webinar is: bit.ly/Webinar-Seafood-Survey
Contact: Joshua Stoll, [email protected]
