Are Innovations in Seafood Market in Europe More Sustainable?

Suggested Bibliographic Reference: Challenging New Frontiers in the Global Seafood Sector: Proceedings of the Eighteenth Biennial Conference of the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade, July 11-15, 2016. Compiled by Stefani J. Evers and Ann L. Shriver. International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade (IIFET), Corvallis, 2016.Proceedings of the Eighteenth Biennial Conference of the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade, held July 11-15, 2016 at Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Center (AECC), Aberdeen, Scotland, UK.In the framework of the H2020 PrimeFish project, whose general objective is to contribute to enhance the economic competitiveness of European fisheries and aquaculture sectors, the analysis of innovation and new product development in the seafood market is an important issue. Simultaneously, concerns on the environmental impact of seafood industry are rising among consumers and public authorities. The question of the trend toward more sustainable new seafood products is thus relevant. Based on the Mintel's Global New Products Database (GNPD) we explore the factors leading to introducing seafood products with sustainability attributes, over 22 492 products commercialized in Europe between 2000 and 2015. The dataset provides information on claims positioned on product packages, allowing us to analyze the use of sustainable claims in the seafood sector. First we describe the general trend of innovation in the European seafood market, by considering all types of claims (convenience, demographic, health, natural and sustainable), as more than 60% of new products are launched in Europe with claims. Among them, 40% are positioning as more sustainable products. Furthermore, we investigate what countries and types of companies are leading the introduction of new products with sustainable claims, and we focus on the species used as well as the product conditioning (fresh, frozen or ambient). Using trend analysis, we draw an accurate picture of the sustainable innovation in seafood sector in Europe, underlining the key role of innovation and sustainability for the competitiveness on this sector