Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
greatly interested in certified lobster, it is not sold as certified product, and therefore
MSC certification did not provide any additional commercial value within their cur-
rent marketing strategy. The high demand for live lobster in Asian markets during
Chinese New Year and other festivities make it possible for the majority of the an-
ticipated lobster production to be pre-sold, sometimes months before it is caught.
After the certification was achieved, the FEDECOOP marketing department in
collaboration with COBI, WWF and MSC staff worked to open new marketing
opportunities in the US, Mexico and Europe, in markets that are more interested in
the certified product. Although there was a lot of interest in all of these markets,
including from Slow Food members, no purchase arrangements materialised. The
main constraints were as follows:
not enough production that could be made available to new buyers;
price too high for new buyers, because their interest was mostly in product forms
other than live lobsters (such as frozen tails);
a desire only to purchase small volumes of product, making it uneconomical to
divert production destined for Asian buyers;
logistics for distribution channels for retail sales were not available at FEDE-
COOP, resulting in increasing distribution costs and either increased sales price
or diminished returns.
Even though MSC certification was not able to either change or modify the cur-
rent markets, it was very useful to the FEDECOOP and the cooperatives to lobby
the Mexican government authorities for increased support. The argument they used
was that in order to maintain the management performance needed for continued
MSC certification, the cooperatives needed to receive at least the same level of
support from the government. As it was explained, the performance levels are in
great part due to the exemplary stewardship and the strict property rights arrange-
ments these cooperatives have implemented. However, they need the continued
support from authorities to control illegal fishing from poachers (fishers that do not
belong to the cooperatives), to authorise the fishing quotas for lobster and other
marine resources and the research needed for ongoing management decisions, to
provide for the renewal of fishing concessions, and to provide economic support
for community services and improved lobster processing for increased marketing
opportunities.
A direct result of the MSC certification is that government is paying more atten-
tion to the demands and requests of FEDECOOP on behalf of affiliated cooperatives
since the fishery was certified in 2004. Several pending community development
and fisheries projects were approved after that date, including bringing electricity
to all coastal communities, modernisation of processing plants, the construction
of new holding facilities for live lobsters in Ensenada owned by FEDECOOP and
modernisation of fishing equipment. This support has exceeded US$21.2 million
(Ramade & Garcıa 2005).
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