A Cork based seafood business, Paulona Seafoods Ltd., has launched a new online seafood auction, where buyers can bid for freshly caught Irish fish in real time. It is the first time an online auction has been used in Ireland to sell seafood and it is helping to streamline the sale of freshly caught fish, as well as creating greater transparency in pricing, and opening up the market for the local fishing fleet.
The live online auction is partnering with French based seafood auction house, CCI Finistere, and is aligned with the Guilvinic auction. It currently takes place twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays, and has access to 260 buyers, creating greater income security by directly opening up the French market where demand for fresh, high quality whole fish is strong.
The auction marks a new business direction for Joe Walsh, a second generation seafood entrepreneur, who set up Paulona Seafoods in 2001, supplying fresh Irish seafood to local and European markets. By 2028, Joe aims to diversify sales channels for his business so that 95% of sales will come from the online auction. He said:
“It’s a change of mindset for fishermen and a change of direction for the Irish market – if every other European country is doing it, why are we not? We are in a very different place – even ten years ago, logistics were much more difficult and we didn’t have an online capacity. We are two full months in business. Two months in and 100% it works. If I’d thought of it earlier I would have gone with it two or three years ago when we had an awful lot more fish. But we were happy plodding along. We were all getting half decent prices. From a company perspective, we are solely 100% Irish fish. Without Irish fish we’re nothing. At the end of the day I’m no different to any other competitor, I have to think outside the box.”
Paulona Seafoods received investment of €179,425 under the Seafood Processing Capital scheme for the purchase of software for the online auction and an in-house prawn freezing facility to improve quality control and profitability. The funding was supported by the Government of Ireland and the EU under the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund.
Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) Interim CEO, Richard Donnelly, praised Joe Walsh’s vision and drive, and stated:
“In a challenging market place, Paulona Seafoods, with Joe Walsh at the helm, is demonstrating the very best of entrepreneurial spirit. The ability to identify a new revenue stream for Irish landed fish, while simultaneously increasing visibility and driving stronger market prices, is a remarkable achievement. This kind of innovation, and way of thinking, is strengthening the position and reputation of Irish seafood in the global marketplace and setting a powerful example for how we can grow tomorrow.”
Paulona Seafoods’ business model is vertically integrated, and has over 25 fishing vessels landing catch specifically for the business, with ambitions to increase this number. Joe Walsh explained how in the days before each auction, landed fish is graded for quality and prepared for the auction.
“The buyers have been more than impressed with the quality of Paulona Seafoods’ fish. We have two grades here – A and B. A is good quality and B is poorer quality and there’s E, that would be exceptional or excellent and is primarily for day catch fish – fair enough some of our boats have day catch fish, but the problem is it takes another 36 hours after they’re caught to get to France.”
Joe Walsh’s father set up Ballycotton Seafoods in the 1980s, a seafood processing business that is now run by Joe’s brother. Joe credits the encouragement his father received from Darina Allen and the late Myrtle Allen, Ballymaloe House and cookery school, to set up the business.
“It was Ballymaloe cookery school who stemmed it off for Dad. He started buying fish initially. He started off small and interest evolved. Myrtle and Darina Allen put a fair stamp on what he was doing, and he opened up his first shop in 1985, and it grew from there on.”
Joe Walsh’s focus is firmly set on the future, and his ambition is to help sustain the fishing industry for generations to come.
“My want is for my kids to be a part of this. My Dad started this in the 80s. I want my kids to look back and to say ‘Dad started this all’. I’ve laid all my eggs in this basket, financially, physically, mentally…You speak to any of the inshore boats, they’re predominately shellfish, they haven’t had an outlet for other species, and because of that, they’re moving their kids away from the industry, and then you have the fishing industry being lost, the whole craft of it, it’s being lost. I hope that maybe they can have the want to bring their kids back to it. I have a ferocious grá for it, I love what I do.”
