Market trends of seafood products under international constraints: contractualisation, marketing strategies and new behaviours

In the developed countries, especially in the European Union, demand for seafoodproducts has increased very quickly (faster than that of meat products). This growthmay be explained by the recurring problems of animal health impacts on otherproducts (bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), avian influenza (bird flu)...) and tothe impacts of the environmental problems (dioxins...) which are less prevalent inseafood products. In addition, seafood products profit from an increasingly positiveimage positioned on the axis of nutrition- health.The enhancement of the markets is influenced more and more by the retailingchannel (hyper and supermarkets). Indeed, France profits from being a pioneer inretailing, (more than 70% of the seafood market is through retailers) who can be seenas axis of development with other sectors and in other countries.To satisfy the demand, the national platforms of the retailers rely upon importedproducts to supplement their supplies from local fishermen and fish farmers. Theselocal actors must adapt to the constraints imposed by the platforms, whichconstitutes a major innovation in the contractual relationship with the hyper andsupermarket stores. The international context weighs heavily in the determination ofthese constraints.This paper deals with this framework of the new forms of contractualisation betweenthe actors imposed by the evolution of the international context. It also describes theimplications in term of setting in market and marketing strategies. Lastly, it takes intoaccount the emergence characteristics of new food buying behaviours.