Unveiling Retailer’s and Gastronomes’ Perspectives Towards Brown Shrimp Processing at the North Sea Coast

The brown shrimp fishery is a traditional fishery along the German North Sea coastline with high economic value for the German fishing industry. North Sea brown shrimp are a unique regional product for locals and tourists, yet the product has an international value chain for hand-peeling and further processing. This leads to long transport distances, high use of preservatives, and puts the value chain at risk for shocks, e.g. the COVID-19 pandemic. To maintain this fishery regional peeling could address some ethical and sustainability issues and add regional value to the local economy, but also presents challenges, particularly in relation to high costs and quality concerns. Thus, the objective of this study was to gain insights into gatekeepers’ (gastronomes, retailers) perspectives and to investigate their attitudes towards transforming the brown shrimp value chain to include regional peeling. These actors are of specific importance to distribute and promote sustainably produced foods. Therefore, qualitative interviews (with gastronomes, n = 12) and two focus groups (with wholesalers and retailers, n = 13) were employed. The results show that gastronomes have already implemented some solutions to avoid peeling brown shrimp abroad and to increase regional value creation. Wholesalers, retailers and gastronome stakeholders emphasized the importance of brown shrimp for regional gastronomy and tourism. They are in favour of regional processing, but have concerns regarding high costs, the supply of sufficient quantities and product quality aspects such as shell residue when brown shrimp are peeled by machine. Recommendations on how to market high-priced regionally peeled brown shrimp are described.