Tom MacSweeney maritime column: Fish sales online auction catching on for Paulona

Joe Walsh from Ballycotton has a self-described “ferocious grá” for fishing, probably born from his family’s long involvement in the industry.

His father set up Ballycotton Seafoods in the 1980s.

“Dad started off small and interest evolved. He was encouraged by Darina Allen and the late Myrtle Allen of Ballymaloe House and Cookery School, They put a fair stamp on what he was doing. He opened up his first shop in 1985 and it grew from there,” he says. It is now run by Joe’s brother.

Joe set up his own company, Paulona Seafoods, in 2001 supplying fresh Irish seafood to local and European markets. He is now offering the Irish industry something it has never had previously — online fish auctioning.

“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?” Walsh says.

He is partnering with French seafood auction house, CCI Finistere, aligned with the Guilvinic auction, offering buyers online bidding opportunities for freshly caught Irish fish in real time. The live online auction takes place twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays, and has access to 260 buyers, “creating greater income by directly opening up the French market where demand for fresh, high quality whole fish is strong”, according to Mr Walsh.

It is a new business direction for him and, by 2028, he hopes to “diversify sales channels, so that 95% of sales will happen through the online auction”.

Before each auction, landed fish is graded for quality and prepared for auction. He says Paulona Seafoods has 25 fishing vessels landing catch specifically for the business and has “ambitions to increase this number”.

“We are a few months in and 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. From a company perspective, we are solely 100% Irish fish. Without Irish fish we’re nothing.”

That is a strong statement at a time when the Irish industry is facing a lot of challenges and problems, with restricted quotas. But Joe Walsh takes a positive view.

“I have a ferocious grá for the fishing industry and would like to see more young people come into it. While it is under pressure, fishermen are strong people. It will survive, it will never die out, but it can use new methods and ways to do things. In a challenging marketplace we are developing a new revenue stream for Irish-landed fish.

“There is so much negativity around the industry that it is sometimes too easy to overlook the very positive things the industry can do for itself.”

The State fishing agency, Bord Iascaigh Mhara, supports his approach. Chief executive Richard Donnelly, says: “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,”

Paulona Seafoods received investment of €179,425 under the Seafood Processing Capital scheme for the purchase of software for the auctioning and an in-house prawn-freezing facility. The funding is supported by the government and the EU under the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund.

“I love what I do. I’ve put a lot into this project — financially, physically, mentally,” Joe Walsh told me. “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 is being lost. That must be changed, it must not be lost. If everything works to plan, this could be a gamechanger for the Irish fishing industry.”

FROM CORK TO PORT OMAN

“Strategic Port of the Future” is the description of Port Duqm in Oman, part of the special economic zone project in the sultanate on the Arabian peninsula, which shares land borders with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen, its coastline facing the Arabian Sea. Captain Paul O’Regan, who resigned as Cork Port harbour master in October, has become its chief operating officer.

Established with the objective of diversifying the economy, the port is a greenfield project emerging as a hub of economic activity due to its central location.

RIVERS GROUP AGM

The AGM of the Cork Rivers Alliance Group will be held at the bio-diversity hub in Ballincollig on Friday, March 27, both online and in-person attendance.

Joe Walsh of Paulona Seafoods talks about his project on my Seascapes podcast at: tommacsweeneymaritimepodcast.ie and wherever you go for your podcast listening.

Email: tommacsweeneymarine@gmail.com.