Quality Schemes and Quality Labels in The French Fish Farming Sector

• Main Authors: Marioujouls, Catherine, Fischer, Marion
• Format: Report
• Language: English; unknown
• Published: International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade
• Subjects: Sustainable Fisheries > Congresses; Fisheries > Economic aspects > Congresses; Turbot
• Online Access: https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/conference_proceedings_or_journals/2514nm86n

Within the French fish farming sector, both in the freshwater sector (trout, carps) and in the marine sector (seabass, seabream, turbot), during the last years have emerged a number of quality schemes. These quality schemes show various forms (national charters with third part certification, standard, official quality labels, private certification, collective trademarks), they correspond to various levels of constraints in the specifications, and they have been initiated by diverse types of operators (producers, processors, distributors), as individuals or groups. Using the results of interviews of operators in the supply chain for the different sectors, we analyse the effects of the setting up of quality schemes, for the enterprises (production, processing), for the collective organization, and for the product enhancement. In the enterprises, the importance of induced changes varies greatly depending on their initial situation, the main changes being brought by setting traceability. In the case of collective quality schemes, an overall improvement of quality is recognized by the actors, but the expectations by the producers of a premium is hardly satisfied, in the present organization of the chain. At present, the small number of companies officially certified for labels show generally good results, but those can hardly be generalised. The study gives opportunity to analyse the construction of quality schemes regarding to the collective professional organization and the supply chain organization, and to discuss the use of collective quality schemes as tools for a general improvement of farming and processing. Keywords: quality, organization, labels, Fisheries Economics, certification, fish farming, Aquaculture Economics and Management, signals, schemes