Innovative blockchain traceability technology and stakeholders’ engagement strategy for boosting sustainable seafood visibility, social acceptance and consumption in Europe.
The Horizon Europe SEA2SEE project comes to fill in existing seafood traceability gaps through the development of an innovative blockchain-based platform, while raising awareness of consumers on responsible seafood consumption of fished and farmed products.
The project
As the leader of WP2 in the SEA2SEE Project, SUBMON is responsible for developing and executing the Consumer Engagement Strategy. This Strategy aims to increase awareness, promote seafood literacy, and address responsible seafood consumption and product acceptance. We have created the strategy through collective intelligence methods, incorporating innovative actions we will implement during the project’s lifetime.
Within the SEA2SEE project, we strive to close the gaps in seafood traceability, by using a cutting-edge blockchain model. Our goal is to provide full transparency from the origin to the end-consumers, ultimately increasing trust and social acceptance of sustainable seafood and aquaculture products.
SEA2SEE has received co-funding through the EU’s Horizon Europe framework, with contributions from 14 organisations in 6 European countries.
Throughout the project duration (2021-2026), three pilots will be created in Spain, Greece and Portugal to track fishery and aquaculture products. Additionally, traceability pilot tests will be conducted on imported products from Ecuador and Peru.
Within the project, the involvement of producers, consumers and other groups of stakeholders along the seafood value chain is crucial, as we aim to listen to their needs and expectations to develop customized solutions to improve traceability in this sector.
Project goals
Within the project dimensions, several goals have been identified:
Activities
1. Consumer survey.
2. Training on CI process.
3. One-day multi-stakeholder workshops.
The first action to be implemented is the SEA2SEE Hackathon, being organised in partnership with CBCat’s BlockchainxODS project. The goal of this program is to encourage the adoption of blockchain technology in real-life projects by promoting a collaborative approach to supporting the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Challenge statement came from an internal discussion around the main barriers to responsible consumption and product acceptance identified through the Collective Intelligence process in the project countries.
“The SEA2SEE project will address the SDG 14- Life Below Water with the following Hackathon Challenge: “Develop a complementary tool based on blockchain technology and designed to assist consumers in making informed and responsible decisions when purchasing seafood.”
As part of the project, a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) will be created to educate consumers and stakeholders on responsible consumption and sustainable production practices in the seafood industry.
The MOOC will cover a wide range of topics, including fish life cycles, fishing methods, aquaculture processes, seafood traceability and guidelines for responsible purchasing and marine conservation. One of the main barriers identified in the Collective Intelligence process was in fact a lack of seafood literacy in the society, and the MOOC will provide resources to overcome this obstacle.
The primary audience for the MOOC is consumers and stakeholders in the last part of the seafood value chain, including market owners, fishmongers, chefs, restaurant owners, food bloggers and influencers, and supermarket representatives.
The course will use recorded presentations and video capsules to deliver the content, with additional support materials like summaries, infographics, and animated videos also available. The main language for presentations and materials will be English, but subtitles of the presentations and summary materials will be translated at least into Portuguese, Spanish, French, Greek.
