Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation

The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States led to significant growth in food insecurity throughout the country and revenue loss for its commercial fisheries. A Maine nonprofit called the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association (MCFA) started a seafood accessibility program, Fishermen Feed Mainers, to provide solutions to these problems by buying locally caught seafood and donating it to food insecure communities in the state. As a majority of the program’s funding comes from grants and donations, which can be unreliable, MCFA is considering value-added seafood products as a potential source of

revenue. This project identifies the market opportunities MCFA can capitalize on in order to create a profitable value-added fish product to help fund Fishermen Feeding Mainers. These opportunities informed two sets of business recommendations: Market and Product, and Supply Chain. The recommendations offer suggestions on ways MCFA can competitively market a value-added product, which value-added products to prioritize producing, and the supply chain partnerships they should take advantage of.