Good Choice: Fish! - Gute Wahl: Fisch!

Short Description

Gute Wahl: Fisch! (German for „Good Choice: Fish!“) is a platform aimed at disseminating information on sustainability in fishery and aquaculture. Accessible via website and an app, it offers informational material, studies, and data on these topics. Furthermore, it also shows sales points for domestic fish and aquaculture products in Austria. The project seeks to increase consumer awareness on sustainably produced fish and its quality overall.

Point of Departure

Fish is becoming increasingly popular with consumers. Due to high standards and strict guidelines, domestic fish is considered a sustainable product, which complies with high production standards. Nevertheless, the per capita consumption of fish in Austria is low compared to other food groups. In addition, the share of imports from countries with incomparable production standards (environmental protection, animal health, animal welfare, working conditions, etc.) is very high (around 95 %). Information on the topic of sustainability in fishery and aquaculture promotes public awareness of sustainable fish products. Anyone who wants to eat sustainably and regionally produced fish also needs to be informed about where to purchase it.

Targets and target groups

• Raise public awareness regarding sustainable aquaculture and fishing;
• Information of consumers concerning regional and ecological production;
• Reduced CO₂ emissions through short transport routes;
• Promoting the sales of sustainably produced and high-quality fish;
• Strengthening of the sector through stable or growing demand overall.

Project Implementation and Measures

• Definition of criteria as well as categories for the participation and presentation on the platform in cooperation with representation of the aquaculture sector in Austria
• Design of the platform and programming of the website
• Preparation and publication of content related to knowledge about fish, aquaculture and sustainability as well as culinary (nutrition, recipes)
• Registration of local aquaculture and fishing companies as well as gastronomy and trading companies and integration into the online platform

Results and Effects

• Website https://gutewahlfisch.at/ as platform
• 1.536 companies have registered until spring 2021 thereof
  • 120 aquaculture and fishing companies
  • 63 gastronomy companies
  • 1253 trading companies and 100 (farmer's) markets
• At least 3.000 people could be reached with social media activities and articles