Inclusive blue growth? Small-scale fishers, local value chains and gastronomy

Abstract

Small-scale fisheries (SSF) frequently face difficulties in devising optimal strategies for the marketing of their catches. In the last decades, changes in seafood value chains with the increasing relevance of large supermarket chains and industrial fisheries have frequently relegated the catches from SSF to marginal areas. That increases the challenges for survival and generational renewal in SSF. Initiatives need to be taken to improve this situation, to increase the visibility and social appreciation of SSF seafood products, while at the same time adapting these products to the demands of the consumer of the XXI century.

In this presentation, we synthesise the experience developed in the Canary Islands framed in two projects, Macarofood (Interreg III V-A, MAC/2.3d/015) and FoodE (H2020, Grant Agreement No 862663) that strive to close the gap between local SSF producers and the market. A transdisciplinary and multigenerational focus has been adopted to introduce these seafood products in different channels, from schools’ canteens to elite gourmet restaurants. Adapting the, while at the same time improving the adaptation to the demands of these diverse markets. Collaboration with fisher organizations’, schools’ managers, municipalities, local governments, and chefs' associations constitutes the cornerstone of a change process that we hope to drive in a few years to a transformation in the local seafood value chain in the Canary Islands. This change could not have been possible without basic research. Still, it was not less important to analyze how to transfer this knowledge to the multiple stakeholders in the local seafood markets.