Winning Success in Aquaculture Marketing

Abstract

A decade ago aquaculture in Ireland was essentially a cottage industry, fragmented, undercapitalised with uneven product quality and at the mercy of larger, often foreign owned distributors. Today, a rapidly growing aquaculture industry is achieving profitable prices for a quality product in competitive international markets. Key to this success has been a fuller understanding and reshaping of the aquabusiness value chain- the chain of value adding activities from raw materials to final consumer that characterises the industry. Producers, using cooperative and relationship based marketing approaches, have essentially changed the rules of the game and won more control over and profit from downstream activities.