Promoters of sustainable fishing in Mexico organized a meeting in Mexico City on June 11 at which producers had 15-minute rounds to present their products to potential buyers of fish and seafood.
This was the 8th Networking “Promoting responsible trade and consumption of Mexican species”, organized by the Mexican Council for the Promotion of Fishery and Aquaculture Products (Comeesca), carried out in a round robin format, where each of the producers has the opportunity to have an individual session with groups of buyers, including: Grupo Intercontinental, Grupo Accor, Grupo Santa Fe, Grupo Land and Sea and Aeromexico.
Álvaro de Tomas Kutz, Secretary of Comeesca, pointed out that the format of this networking has broken with all the previous ones. At the same time, Comeesca organized a sustainability panel where actions were discussed to promote fishing sustainability in Mexico.
“Everything is ultimately within a framework of sustainability. We separated them a little. Usually these types of groups have a sustainability management and then they have a purchasing management... Why at the same time (the making of the table and the networking)? , Because if there are doubts or questions, sustainability people can approach some producers and buyers themselves can approach people who come from institutions such as Collective Impact or WWF,” said Álvaro de Tomas Kutz.
Álvaro de Tomas, Secretary of Comeesca. Photo: Juan Luis Garcia.
Among the producers who attended was the Punta Sacrificio cooperative, located in Puerto Ángel, Oaxaca, whose processing plant bears the same name.
“We have the FIP, which is a Fisheries Improvement Project where it is certified that our product is sustainably fished, selectively and therefore it can now be marketed,” said Margarita Darina Castro Ramírez, representative of the plant that today processes keg and sea scale.
Darina Castro Ramírez, representative of Punta Sacrificio. Photo: Juan Luis Garcia.
The product is delivered in coolers by fishermen, an exhaustive review is carried out so that it can be filleted and after a rigorous process it is vacuum-packed and frozen; the labeling has a traceability through which it is possible to know with a scanner who caught the product, on what date and what vessel, Castro explained.
The plant has a contract with Smartfish for 500 kilograms per month, and has hotel customers in the area. However, the networking opportunity has allowed their representatives to explore other clients.
“The issue of sustainability is something very new in the area and we are the ones who are starting to work together with other organizations. Being able to come here and be with the big buyers helps us first to make ourselves known and second to understand what the needs of the buyers are, to see what are those ways in which we need to improve in order to be able to offer what they need and that they can buy from us,” said Alicia Muñoz, part of the team of the Oaxacan Fund for the Conservation of Nature, an organization that accompanies fishermen.
Sustainable shopping
The meetings between buyers and sellers are only the first step in an eventual purchase, Alfredo Rodríguez, representative of the company Land and Sea, which belongs to the Cambalache and Puerto Madero group, two restaurant brands in Mexico City, Cancun and Miami, told Causa Natura Media.
“Talking to them (the producers) who are directly the ones doing it, because it's interesting, you have another perspective and they talk to you in a very different way than a distributor does it, I mean, I think that's one of the benefits of this workshop, because you can talk directly with the source, right?” , Rodriguez said.
Photo: Juan Luis Garcia.
Although Cambalache specializes mainly in cuts of meat, Puerto Madero offers fish and seafood to its customers.
“Puerto Madero is still an Argentinian-style restaurant with a grill for imported meat, American meat, and has a lot of fish and seafood. All the fish we bring, many are imported, we bring salmon from Norway, seabass from Chile, cod, crab and lobster from the United States, razaja clams, we buy a lot of octopus from Progreso, in Yucatán, and well, most of the products we offer in the restaurant are fresh, which is what they are offering us right at this meeting,” said Rodríguez.
For the representative of Land and Sea, their importation of fish and seafood does not conflict with their interest in domestic products, since these are different species for the public that demand these products.
“For example, there is the case of Totoaba [from aquaculture], who explained to us right now that it is an endemic product of Mexico, so for foreigners it can be quite attractive if they arrive in Mexico and in one of the restaurants they can try Totoaba,” he said, a product that aquaculture farmers at the event explained that there are quotas of fish that they release back into the ecosystem.
For the representative of Sea and Land, the aspect of sustainability is important, since they seek to take care of the health of their customers and ensure that the products they buy do not harm the ecosystem.
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