July 28, 2017 — Most of our seafood is imported. “Most” means 92 percent; sometimes a higher number is quoted. That leaves eight percent of the seafood that is consumed in the United States sourced within our boarders. As was discussed last week, a piece of fish that is caught off the coast of Scituate, returned to shore properly handled but not frozen, processed locally and sold within a day or so is far superior to a frozen foreign product. Superior in both health and quality benefits. It would be hard to find someone to argue against this supposition.
Why would a consumer that lives in or near a fishing port every buy the foreign frozen version of something that is much better tasting and for you when caught locally? The answer is two-fold. One issue is that the seafood market is clearly global. Foreign players often have cost leverage over local operations. Second, many consumers do not realize they are buying or ordering a foreign-sourced fish and may not realize it has been frozen. Sometimes products are misrepresented on menus, sometimes the fish case at the grocery store is missing the required sign when a product is foreign and often the consumer just doesn’t think to ask.
While cognitively consumers know local is better, the differentiation between local and product from elsewhere simply enough to change behavior. A piece of fish is a piece of fish to many. Plus, after years of lackluster economic growth, many consumers are still very driven by price.