N.C. seafood marketing — 



• 600 documented companies 



• over 200 retail stores 



• countless new restaurants 



• worth over $20 million to fishermen 



• worth $80 million at the retail level 



Marketing: growing pains aplenty 



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ed from page i 



That thing called "marketing" is inextricably 

 tied to the state of the seafood industry which in 

 North Carolina is variously described as being: 

 unsophisticated, unresponsive to consumer needs, 

 fragmented and chaotic; or, profitable, efficient 

 enough and getting along fine, thank you. 



Complaints about the state of seafood marketing 

 seem to dominate: 



Ralph Jarvis, president of the North Carolina 

 Fisheries Association and a processor himself, says 

 the market can't absorb the occassional gluts of a 

 particular species. Of late, he's seen croaker thrown 

 away because prices got so bad. 



Fish dealer Willie Etheridge III in Wanchese 

 says business, with so many small dealers trying 

 to sell fish, is highly competitive. 



Seafood distributor Bob Fergus in Wilmington 

 says he can't always get enough seafood from 

 dealers to fill his orders. 



Retailer Bill Butler in Charlotte says the market 

 is so fragmented he is sometimes forced to buy 

 from as many as 10 different distributors to get 

 the variety he wants. And, he has to take delivery 

 whenever he can get it— even if it's after church 

 on a Sunday afternoon as a truck passes through 

 on its way to New York from Alabama. 



It sounds pretty contradictory, but maybe it 

 isn't. The glut Jarvis talks about is a trick of 

 nature, and, since about 60% of the state's seafood 

 is marketed fresh, only a limited amount can be 

 used at any given time. 



The competition to sell fish reflects the ups and 

 downs of supply, too. But also, fragmentation — 

 and smallness of most operations — imply that most 

 dealers can't command a price. 



Likewise, the scarceness of popular fish out of 

 season (again, because most are handled fresh), 

 that Butler and Fergus talk about has forced 

 them to buy out of state to maintain a variety for 

 their customers. As distributor Milton Evans in 

 Washington, N.C, explains, "the better variety 

 you've got, the more fish you'll sell." 



The crazy quilt-work pattern of distribution 

 leads one observer to call seafood marketing in 

 North Carolina a real "hodge podge." Despite that, 

 marketing continues to expand. There are now 600 

 documented seafood companies, over 200 retail 

 stores, and countless new seafood restaurants in 

 the state. 



Ex-vessel prices, those paid to the fishermen, 

 have more than doubled since 1968. Seafood is now 

 a $20-million industry for fishermen and an $80- 

 million industry by the time the product reaches 

 the consumer. 



In 1975, there were nine new coastal seafood 

 plants or major expansions for a total of almost 

 $2.5 million in capital investments. As a result, 

 320 new employees were hired. Three more houses 

 began "cutting fish" — processing by heading, gut- 

 ting, filleting — last year, too. 



Seafood marketing seems to be suffering some 

 growing pains. It's long been a highly individual- 

 ized enterprise. But sheer miles to ever-more dis- 

 tant markets to the final consumer, volume to be 

 handled, and fragmentation have created problems. 



So who would buy the fish? 



■ 



But what about demand? Do people 

 really want more fish? Paul Allsbrook, a 

 state-employed seafood promoter, says yes. 

 Allsbrook sees more and more new seafood 

 restaurants and retail markets. For ex- 

 ample, he says, at least eight restaurants 

 have opened in Raleigh in the past five 

 years. 



"There's more and more interest in sea- 

 foods, we have more calls. . . People are 

 eating more and more seafood out, there's 

 no doubt about that. . . Everybody has dif- 

 ferent conceptions of how to market. My 

 basic concern is to gear their facilities to 

 produce products in a manner in which the 

 consumer wants it." 



Down at East Carolina University's Bus- 

 iness School, Sea Grant researcher John 

 Summey also thinks more attention should 

 be paid to the consumer. Efficiency can be 

 increased readily enough, he says, new 

 products can be created, and so on. 



But "the only thing we haven't done any- 

 thing on is selling fish. . . It's a lot easier 

 to sell something the consumer wants." So, 

 next year, Summey proposes a research 

 project which would take a look at con- 

 sumers; who they are; how they use fish; 



what their hang-ups about fish are; and 

 whether or not the retailer effectively 

 reaches them. 



Summey raises the question, for example, 

 of why so many people eat seafood in 

 restaurants where cooking has been re- 

 duced to a science, rather than at home. 



Judging from national figures, there 

 should be plenty of people to sell fish to if 

 Summey can figure out why they aren't 

 buying now. In 1975, the annual per capita 

 consumption of beef was 119.5 pounds, pork 

 55 pounds, poultry 48.5 pounds. Though the 

 figures aren't out yet, fish will probably 

 come in at around 12 pounds per person, to 

 be followed only by veal, and lamb or mut- 

 ton, at 4 and 2 pounds respectively. 



the low seafood consumption is 

 a national phenomenon, a recent national 

 Sea Grant conference on marketing agreed 

 to examine the problem. Among other ques- 

 tions, researchers would like to answer: 

 what the demand characteristics for sea- 

 food are; and why so much (78.2% of domes- 

 tic sales) fish is sold through institutional 

 channels (hospitals, the military, etc.) 

 rather than retail markets. 



University of North Carolina 

 Sea Grant Program 

 1235 Burlington Laboratories 

 North Carolina State University 

 Raleigh, N. C. 27607 



