A Small Fish Tale…

A big motivation, or aspiration maybe, for us when starting growtogether was to think about (and possibly address?!) the disconnect that seems to have appeared between producer, supplier and customer. It is starting to seem like the culture of give the customer what they want, despite the benefits of this for the consumer, now leaves them in the dark, at a time when we all need to see clearly how we consume.

Growing up in a family and community of traditional farmers and living in a county that was at least at some point completely reliant on the fishing industry it has been impossible to ignore the path of produce to consumer and the monumental changes that have occurred to these industries in a relatively short term as the world tries to keep up with feeding an ever increasing population.

We weren’t really sure how we would address this disconnect and also feel the need to state this isn’t a marketing strategy, I don’t think we’re that savvy. It’s also not about preaching to people about what we believe is wrong and right, there’s plenty of others doing enough of that already. What we think it is about is being honest, trying to understand our supply chain as best we can and passing that on with the produce so that the consumer can make informed decisions in their day to day and maybe, just maybe we can see these small decisions contributing to positive change.

I think generally now it is common knowledge that the British fishing industry is in an absolute fight to save itself or any kind of remnants of what it once was. And it seems we have literally entered the market at a testing time as any. Two words that we’re all sick of and I will therefore not use (one sounds like hexit and the other novid) have made the mountain ever bigger and ever steeper for traditional fishing communities and families to climb. We don’t know the start of it and wouldn’t pretend to understand the complexities and challenges that this industry is now facing. What we do know, after speaking to Matthew (Stevens) over the last few weeks is that all of these issues are unsurprisingly creating issues in the supply chain and we have immediately felt that first hand. The price point, variety and availability that existed a matter of a couple of months ago, and that our fish boxes were designed around, has changed dramatically. At first we were frustrated and to be honest a little stressed by the situation, especially in these early stages for us when we want more than ever to give our customers what they want. But the obvious reality that quickly revealed itself to us is that this is food, this is how it is, sometimes there is an abundance and sometimes not. Despite all our interventions and attempts to control, it is still a natural process, fishing more than most. Food supplies have always been dependent on weather, seasons, pests, disease, etc, a numeration of natural process’ to consider and be challenged by. Now increasingly they are also dependent on politics and their transnational trade relationships. The simplification of always being able to buy produce from an infinitely stocked shelf has a complex backstory!

Don’t worry this isn’t just a long winded explanation of a price hike to our fish box! (we’ll do that quietly and sneakily, distracted by advertising and brand association so you won’t even notice) We’re sticking with things as they are for now and hoping that the markets will settle back down soon. This is simply an explanation of our process, this is us trying to be transparent, maybe you want to know, maybe you don’t, either is absolutely fine, we just want to make sure that decision is yours. We don’t want to leave our customers in the dark where confusion, mistrust and frustration can linger.

So all of this and a whole lot more boils down to we can’t CURRENTLY get the variety of fish that we hoped/expected we could that is in line with our price point and commitments to sustainability. So we talk with Matthew, and we discuss, we listen to his experience and maybe even compromise a little. In our current state of globalisation and consumerism on steroids there always appears to be some kind of option to fulfil our/your customers wants but this desperation to make food production appear infallible often has detrimental side affects and is surely now clear to see, unsustainable. Our choice this morning then was to act like there was no issue or difficulty and buy farmed sea bass from Turkey (one of a couple of options) or compromise and offer less variety this week but use more plentiful and sustainable species and a less on trend fish, fittingly Sardines or Pilchards as they were once known, the fish that St Ives and many other towns and villages across Cornwall were built on.

We wanted to explain this as we hope it sets out “where we’re coming from” a little, our morals, ethos and how we hope to continue forward.

For those of you that ordered a fish box this week, we hope you enjoy the Pilchards.