Fishers in Arranmore and Inishbofin are trialling a phone app that allows customers to click and collect off the boats.
Out at sea, fishermen and women snap a photo of their catch as soon as they draw in their nets. The fish of the day then shows up in an app where customers can click and buy. The fish is ready to collect the moment the boat comes ashore.
The fish could not be fresher. And there’s no middleman.
The Abalobi app was originally developed in South Africa, but is now being trialled by fishers from Donegal with the help of €25,000 from social fund, Rethink Ireland.
Arranmore and Inishbofin have a seasonal market made up of the local community and an influx of tourist during the summer season.
At the moment, the trial is small scale involving three Donegal island boats and just a handful of customers with the app. But the ambition is to expand the service to restaurants and customers on the mainland.
The app has had some teething glitches and may need some further work before it can be used more widely. Also, with a 10 per cent fee on sales, the transaction costs are not insignificant. Nonetheless, the idea is showing some potential and wider interest.
It is one of a dozen projects put forward by campaign group, Seas At Risk, in a new report on how to make Europe’s fisheries more sustainable.
They argue that if the fishing industry is to achieve sustainable targets, new business models and innovative ideas are needed.
“These examples are not perfect”, the report authors admit, “but they all demonstrate courageous and innovative approaches to the way seafood is produced and distributed in Europe.”
Environmental fisheries groups want the EU to take on board the findings and fund a roll-out of successful projects.
“Small-scale fishers are the backbone of our coastal communities. They have long been champions of low-impact fishing, but their contributions are under-recognised”, says Marta Cavallé from Low impact Fishers of Europe.
“To make this transition a reality, regulatory and financial support from the European Commission and Member States is essential.”
“Alternative business models within the fishery sector gain little public visibility, yet there are inspiring examples that can provide inspiration for larger-scale change.”
Besides the Abalobi app being tested in Ireland, other ideas highlighted in the report include a Portuguese project to provide customers with boxed seafood in a similar way to a veg box scheme, a system in Spain to increase fishers’ incomes by bypassing the auctioners, and a French new brand label drawing attention to the environmental credentials of line-caught sea bass in Brittany.