October 29, 2019
GAPP Annual Meeting Panelists Talk Life Cycle Assessments, Sustainability and Technology
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON—The afternoon session of the first-ever Association of Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers (GAPP) Annual Meeting began with the big reveal of the new industry-wide website and a robust discussion of sustainability efforts currently underway. The website, which went live today in conjunction with the organization’s annual meeting was designed to be a dynamic website that the industry can use to showcase the story of the fishery, the fish and current industry partnerships and projects and can be found at www.alaskapollock.org.
“You’ll notice compelling story-telling that provides insights into Wild Alaska Pollock as a fish, a fishery and an industry,” said Greg Oberst, head content writer for the Garrigan Lyman Group, GAPP’s website design firm. “You’ll also notice big, bold imagery and animation which is meant to be ‘sticky’ keeping visitors on the site longer to really dive into all the content available.”
The website features recipes provided by many of the GAPP partners including True North and Martha Stewart, Antoni Porowski and Gortons and American Seafoods. The site also showcases the North American Partnership and European Partnership Programs as well as the organization’s new schools strategy.
Following the website reveal, the agenda turned to the industry’s work moving forward its comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment and the importance of sustainability overall. Piggybacking on the GAPP research which indicated that sustainability was motivating to many Wild Alaska Pollock current and future consumers, afternoon presenters echoed those sentiments and discussed the importance of the industry’s continued commitment to those efforts.
“Sales of more sustainable products have grown 20% since 2014,” said Bryan Sheehan of Quantis, the industry’s contractor for the comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment. “Sustainable products are currently 22% of the total grocery store and that figure is projected to jump to 25% by 2021. 50% of consumers (75% of Millennials) will change their behavior to buy more sustainable products and are demanding increased transparency.”
“An LCA [life cycle assessment] is the best tool that the Wild Alaska Pollock industry has to communicate that direct, strong science in a very actionable way for consumers,” added Melissa Zgola, also of Quantis. “LCA is the gold-standard for doing this kind of work. It’s science-based and defendable and it helps us to avoid unintended consequences and burden shifting.”
The afternoon panel, moderated by Matt Tinning of the At-Sea Processors Association picked up strongly on this theme, explaining how Wild Alaska Pollock was sustainable “before it was sexy,” in addition to featuring a big announcement from a long-time Wild Alaska Pollock retail customer.
“There’s been a lot of talk about sustainability, that’s a big part of this fishery now,” said Karl Bratvold of Starboats as part of the Sustainability panel. “In the 1980’s when I was a captain, we were all cowboys back then…we didn’t do the best job of getting all that we needed out of that fish. After AFA [American Fisheries Act] we saw the recovery rates go up and safety increase. We have observers on board the science has gotten better. It’s profitable and sustainable.”
“We’ve been having this conversation [about sustainability] with customers for more than ten years now,” said Jason Driskill of H-E-B. “Our first conversation with customers around sustainability was through the lens of Alaska because Alaska does a great job balancing thriving communities with thriving fisheries.”
Driskill explained that sustainability helps align people with what they’re putting in their bodies from a values standpoint and that it’s critical to H-E-B’s business, so much so that Wild Alaska Pollock has become a significant part of their seafood offerings.
“Wild Alaska Pollock is a big thing for us, we’re going after it in more ways as we head into 2020. We’re doing surimi, we have made in store ceviche’s and other items that feature Wild Alaska Pollock,” said Driskill. “Most significantly, we’re looking to make a major shift in 2020 for all of our 230 sushi locations to feature Wild Alaska Pollock. We’re going to take it to the next level and we’re excited to flip the switch in our operations.”
While for some consumers, sustainability is top of mind, for more than 80% of consumers, sustainability still ranks lower than taste, convenience and price.
“For many consumers, sustainability still isn’t their one deciding factor about what to purchase. What we’re doing to help them find the answers and the easy solutions about sustainability isn’t getting through to those busy consumers who are so bombarded with information,” said Sharon Ripps of R3 Consulting. “It’s not that they don’t care, it’s not that they don’t have the vision to look for it, it’s that they have so many other things on their plate…we have to make it easy for them care.”
Sustainability is also a growing movement among investors and businesses writ large with companies committing to reductions and signing on to third party evaluations to rate their business practices as they relate to sustainability indicators.
“The landscape is shifting, we’re talking on sustainable business not just sustainable products. There’s opportunity for companies that go down that road,” said George Chmael of Council Fire. “It’s an incredible fishery, it’s an incredible organization [GAPP] that you have behind you and you have the opportunity to really take advantage of this evolving landscape.”
About GAPP
The Association of Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers (GAPP) is dedicated to the marketing of once-frozen pollock products, harvested and processed in Alaska. A non-profit Alaska corporation formed in 2003, GAPP is working to promote Genuine Alaska Pollock in major whitefish markets around the world, with a focus on Europe, North America and Japan. It is our goal to educate both seafood buyers and consumers about the superior benefits of Genuine Alaska Pollock®. www.alaskapollock.org
