Focus On Fish: 9 November

Focus On: Fish by Henry Sandercock

Download feature synopsis PDF here

Publishing: 9 November

Advertising deadline: 4 November

Submissions deadline: 28 October

The Story

Fish is flying. An additional 250,000 shoppers bought into the market in the past year, leading to a near £50m sales gain. But there is one issue putting a dampener on all this: sustainability. As headlines tell of overfishing and global warming, concerns are growing. That’s particularly among the so-called ‘big five’ species. North Sea cod has lost its MSC certification, wild Atlantic salmon has made its way onto the at-risk list and Scottish farmed salmon is perennially under scrutiny. So just how what impact are these sustainability concerns? Are they pushing shoppers towards more sustainable options? Should there be a clearer way of indicating sustainable choices following the Which? criticism of the current system?

Key themes:

Sustainability: What is going on with the big five? To what extent are the sustainability issues becoming more pressing?

Climate change: How is climate shaping the sustainability narrative?

Overfishing: Which fish are most at risk currently?

Shopper behaviour: How are these concerns impacting on shopper behaviour, if at all? How are sales of unsustainable fish performing? And has there been any movement towards more sustainable fish?

Labelling: To what extent is criticism of the sustainable labelling system fair? Should it be clearer for shoppers?

Innovations x 4: Identify four new fish products that ideally have not appeared in The Grocer before. Please supply 100 words on each, including launch date and RSP, and source a hi-res picture of each.

Kantar data: Discuss the factors influencing sales performance in the chilled fand frozen ish market.

Streetbees: How important sustainable fish is to consumers? And whether they are aware of/clear on various sustainability schemes?