Understanding the supply of seafood products: between firms’ strategies, marketing choices and management decisions. The case of scallops in France

Abstract

Despite creeping innovations and progresses, the supply of seafood products is fairly limited bynatural and technological constraints. Meanwhile, the global demand for seafood products is expending, due todemographical and growth effects. As a result, a scope for high valuation of such a natural and renewableresource is expected in many places across the world. However, some fisheries products remain poorly valuated,despite their taste and health characteristics. This can be due to several factors, sometimes interrelated, such asthe supply strategies of fishing firms, the sourcing strategies of processing businesses, the preferences of theconsumers or the management regulation in place. In this paper, the case of the French scallop fisheries isexplored, as scallops count among the most important species in terms of both harvesting and trade in France. Itis shown that as the supply behaviours of the fishing firms are strongly influenced by the management systems inplace, a part processing enterprises tends to privilege imports substitution products. On the other hand, the paperalso presents the case of a vertical integration strategy developed in France, and discusses some of the associatedeffects.