On a recent trade mission to Colombia, which was hosted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) and was championed by U.S. Under-Secretary for Trade, Alexis Taylor, I had an epiphany: if we truly want to expand the reach and presence of Wild Alaska Pollock abroad, we have to stop putting our product into the forms we want it in, and instead focus on the product forms that our consumers want it in. Put simply, we have to put ourselves in the shoes of our consumers, in each individual market, and position Wild Alaska Pollock products in the way that connects to them.
Take for example, the most popular form for Wild Alaska Pollock here in the U.S.: battered and breaded. As I toured the grocery stores and markets in Colombia with one of our Association of Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers (GAPP) Partnership Program participants, Antillana, who was gracious enough to play host and tour-guide to me in Colombia I realized that there was a dearth of battered and breaded products in the freezer aisle. Contrasting sharply with our domestic frozen food cases, I didn’t see many fish sticks, frozen fish patties—or (and I hate to bring up a competitor protein here…but I must for sake of this argument) even chicken nuggets or tenders.
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