Markets and market opportunities for small-scale fishery products
Panel organizers: Cristina Pita, University of Aveiro (Portugal) and Jose Pascual, University de La Laguna (Spain)
Panel proposal MARE Conference, July 2017 http://www.marecentre.nl/2017-conference/
Fisheries, and mostly small-scale fisheries, make an important contribution to nutrition, food security, sustainable livelihoods and poverty alleviation. Several factors affect the capacity of small-scale fishers to sell their fish, receive fair prices, and to add value to their catches. For instance, existing national and regional regulations, globalized marketing schemes, and other trade barriers may restrict market access. We are interested in the supply chain from catch to markets in general, how local small-scale fishery catches interact with those from large scale fleets, how world markets impact on local fishing strategies, which “new” strategies exist for adding-value to small-scale fishery catches (e.g. certification, eco-labelling, direct selling, alternative food networks). The role of middlemen in marketing cannot be ignored, and special focus must be placed on how small-scale fishing organizations enter into this arena. Furthermore, local fresh fish obtained with sustainable gears frequently is not adequately differentiated from the catches of industrial fleets or from the fish coming refrigerated or frozen into the market.
This panel aims to examine and discuss the factors which affect fish products’ entering markets, specially products from small-scale fishery catch, analyze shortcomings of current marketing schemes, explore new market opportunities and alternative marketing options. As well as examine the role of fisher organization in marketing.
Note: The panel is connected to the TBTI cluster market opportunities. If you wish to be part of this panel please send your abstract to Cristina Pita – c.pita@ua.pt.
