Recently, the duo behind Fins Seafood announced via Instagram new labelling across their seafood products. The small plastic label resides on fish and details the vessel and the fishing area.
Part-owner Phil Clark, said that provenance labelling was an opportunity to connect customers to the origin of the seafood they purchase, including the fisher.
“The aquaculture sector have been using gill tags to brand their products – so we thought why don’t we do this for our wild caught fish.”
SMALL LABEL INCLUDES VESSEL AND PROVENANCE DETAILS.
Initially for the owners, it was about the promotion of the ‘Fins brand’ and getting loyalty to product that is sold by them.
“But we released that it was bigger than that, chefs responded to the traceability aspect of the tags and how confidently they could tell their staff where the fish had come from.”
“In all honestly we thought the vessel information was a sidenote to origin – but that information has been picked up the most by our customers,” he said.
The tags have become extremely successful, a way for the company to ensure compliance, due-diligence and to even tell the story behind their seafood.
“We now have chefs telling us how easy it is to tell their staff where the product comes from and educate customers of the origin on what they will be purchasing.”
“Wholesalers are also loving the branding because they can promote the story of our seafood. It is now not just red-throat emperor, BUT Fins red-throat emperor caught in the Abrolhos Island by F.V. Bowithick.”
Within a week of implementing tags, Phil said they had caught someone out with incorrect seafood labelling.
“A top seafood chef in Australia had posted on Instagram about having Abrolhos Island dhufish in store.”
“I rang wholesalers to find out who he had bought it off – but no one had sold it to him – so I reached out to him and asked how he obtained the species.”
Phil said instantaneously he wrote back and apologised – saying that the Dhufish was actually from Lancelin.
“With the implementation of tags – we have protection of Abrolhos branding. As all the chefs will know – if it doesn’t have a tag, it’s not from the Abrolhos,” he said.
Concluding, Phil said that advancing the business, doesn’t just happen without great partners.
“Ben Pethick, skipper of F.V. Bowithick, is a fantastic help, along for the journey and absolutely loves what we are doing with the fish.”
“At Fins, our seafood promotion is important. We want to be recognised for great quality seafood and seafood labelling allows us to quality control our seafood – including how it is branded by chefs and wholesalers.”
“Watch this space as we will be looking to expand our fresh fish offering and get more fisherman on board to get part of the program.”
Fins will be hosting a mini-trade event, called Outback, showcasing WA and New Zealand’s best products on November 12th. For more information contact the team via PHIL@FINSSEAFOOD.COM.AU
ON THE F.V. BOWITHICK WHERE BEAUTIFUL, HIGH-QUALITY SEAFOOD IS CAUGHT.
