Founded in 2005, Blueyou was started by René Benguerel and Matthias Krebs from a shared passion for seafood, the oceans, and fair trade. Over the years, Blueyou envisions a world where seafood is harvested in balance with nature, contributing to planetary health, flourishing oceans, and prosperous coastal communities. The company aims to steer global seafood production towards sustainability as a driver for ocean conservation and climate change mitigation.
Why GDST?
Officially by August 2024. We have followed the GDST since its beginning and as the result, a workable framework for approaching traceability by the private sector, was developed and published, we decided and asked to join.
Why Digital Seafood Traceability Matters
We work in several countries, mostly in a small-scale artisanal fisheries or aquaculture context in the global south, where representative data and basic verifiable traceability is even more challenging than in other seafood operations. Digital traceability can increase the operation efficiency of producers and supply chain actors and if it does, would provide an incentive for “fraud avoidance”, i.e. for providing data, and providing authentic data instead of inventing it. With respect to obtaining representative fisheries data that also serves for fisheries management purposes, data generated by digital traceability is the only option, as manually generated data is practically not available this use.
How GDST helps to Address Challenges
The challenge lies in the nature of seafood supply chains and in the practical implementation: i) the detail and adaptation of digital systems to the processes in specific seafood supply chain, ii) the cost of this implementation, customization and adaptation in relation to a relatively low profitability in seafood businesses, iii) the fragmentation of seafood supply chains and intermediaries (middlemen) that are hard to commit to traceability requirements or that have incentives against it, and iv) the interoperability of data management systems between the actors along seafood supply chains.
GDST helps by defining type of information data that should be provided and at which events, and by networking between service providers and supply chain project implementers, possibly resulting in a lower cost for implementing traceability, i.e. a cost that seafood businesses can afford, and for which the benefits outweigh the costs.
Impact of GDST on the Business
It made an impact by networking and by connecting to GDST-capable service providers. Now we’re working on implementing traceability in sourcing supply chain projects for instance with This Fish/Tally or WholeChain.
Long-Term Goals
The success will depend on the success of project implementation in the private sector and can only be influenced by GDST by supporting such private supply chain projects. Success depends on how many digital data systems along seafood supply chains from catch to consumption will be interconnected and interoperable. We seek to vertically integrate as many digital data systems as possible along the seafood supplychains we manage.
Advice for Potential GDST Partners
Becoming a partner without seeking to implement digital traceability along seafood supply chains might not make a lot of sense, and for implementing digital traceability the major issue, beside the need of fully understanding its seafood source and supply chain in detail and for having a leverage to implement it, is the cost of this implementation. We advise private companies to seek funding for implementing digital supply chain traceability, because as of now this cost can typically still not be paid yet by seafood product sales margins.
You can learn more about Blueyou at: Blueyou Website
Explore the benefits of GDST partnership at: GDST Get Involved