How to promote the Scottish seafood industry

Seafood Scotland was established to increase the economic value of the seafood industry in Scotland. In 2020-21, there were increasing concerns about Brexit and the ability to export fresh fish quickly to the continental market. Seafood caught by Scottish fishermen, landed into Scottish ports and processed by Scottish businesses is the foundation of a longer term vision for the Scottish seafood industry. This is to make Scottish seafood a credible and known brand driven by demand from consumers for a high quality fresh domestic product. 

Union Insight was tasked with determining the best way to build retail business credentials for seafood from Scotland, to promote the Scottish seafood industry to retailers as a quality, modern, sustainable, fresh and seasonal product. We conducted a mixed methods research study into the industry to help stakeholders determine what support the industry needs from Seafood Scotland to make this vision a success. 

The first challenge we faced was access to data. Seafood Scotland had their own contacts of people working in the industry. However, this sample was not deemed suitable due to the inherent bias that these contacts were likely to have a more positive perception of Seafood Scotland having already engaged with them. To avoid this bias, we decided to purchase external data on the businesses within the seafood industry from a reputable data supplier. 

Working closely with stakeholders from Seafood Scotland, we conducted a quantitative survey to capture independent and robust insight into how businesses view them as the industry body. This survey explored the attitudes within the industry across three main themes pertinent to the role of an industry body: labelling and authentication, sourcing and identifying fish correctly, plus education and training. Another critical goal for the quantitative study was to assess the appetite for a membership club within the industry - having a cross-section of responses from across different parts of the industry was invaluable for this. 

This survey was distributed to the business contacts by both a letter and an email with a link (where an email address was available). Follow up emails were also used to boost response rates. 

This approach proved a success with over 100 responses were captured, more than enough to provide useful insight. 

Within the survey design, we asked respondents to provide consent if they wished to take part in a follow up qualitative interview with one of our researchers. We used qualitative research to gain a deeper understanding of the experiences and challenges faced by independent retailers along with their perceptions of Scottish seafood and Seafood Scotland. 

Union Insight conducted eight in-depth interviews in total across each of the various types of independent retailers who participated in the survey, to ensure a range of perspectives were gathered. 

The qualitative results were summarised by the lead researcher, and combined with the survey findings to bring depth and detail to the research as a whole. This provided greater insight into the challenges faced by independent retailers and how Seafood Scotland could best provide support. 

One key finding from the research was that a membership club was regarded as being highly valuable for the industry and likely to be well received.