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Top Story restaurant price, and our commitment to society, the environment and sustainable species have paid off. In supporting local fish suppliers and developing promotional campaigns with partners across the country, we emphasize the impor- tance of selling seasonal sea- food, best expressed in the organoleptic qualities of bo- nito tuna, cod, blue fish such as mackerel and mussels." With the growing trend for and Alcampo's aquaculture respect for biodiversity and species' natural development, "we check all traceability from birth to slaughter, allowing us to provide customers with the highest standards of food safety and develop a whole new seafood segment under our Auchan Controlled Pro- duction brand," says Peñalver. From the point of issuing invitations to tender, Makro España hypermarket and service applies for a rigorous quality audit to its selection criteria every seafood purchase. "Te pri- mary customer is the hospital- ity sector," explains Roberto Rubio, head fish buyer. "For fresh fish, we stipulate same- day supply from inshore or coastal fisheries, latest catch dates from deep sea fishing and processing audits." Recently, Rubio intro- duced guidelines in its Metro Group sustainability policy, including sustainable fishing gear, origins, permitted quo- tas and shipowners' commit- ment policies. "Our biggest-selling fresh species are hake, salmon, sea bream, sea bass, flounder, monkfish and turbot, the kings of national consump- tion," says Rubio. "Asian pan- ga is a recent good seller but it's raised certain reactions. Sea globalization has dis- placed native seafood species due to price factors: American lobster, where Makro España leads the hospitality sector with 8 percent of the total national quota, or vannamei shrimp, have displaced some national seafood. "We see more products for restaurant and tapas menus with significantly lower av- erage spend per customer," continues Rubio. "In the hos- pitality industry, alternative, lower-priced fish are sought, sometimes a lower weight is required to keep within the price. Te inability to source major stocks and the impos- sibility of funding leads to smaller formats and higher frequency purchases. Person- nel costs make products with value added gain strength and raise interest where this factor was previously over- looked. It's a continuous struggle between fresh and frozen fish to reach certain restaurant segments — spe- cifically, due to frozen prod- uct improvements, the fresh fish supply chain has rational- ized its business by improving production costs or reducing operating margins." While Spain's retailers and restaurateurs try to move the bar on seafood consumption, some are worried about the 8 to 10 percent value-added tax increase on seafood imposed from the first of September of this year. ANMAPE Presi- dent Manuel Pablos Leguspín says higher first-sale prices will force suppliers to increase prices to the end customer, leading to reduced sales with a negative impact on Spain's entire industry, from retailers to restaurants. "I am convinced this will result in the opposite effect, i.e. lower tax collection," he says, calling for the 4 percent rate applied to other super- foods considering the impor- tance of fish in a healthy diet. Contributing Editor Chris Dove lives in Málaga, Spain BECOME A FAN OF OUR PRODUCTS Passport Cuisine® ख⅂Γ ® 'Your Friend in the Japanese Food Trade' 888-DNI-GROUP (364-4768) 24 SeaFood Business October 2012 WWW.DNIGROUP.COM SALESDNIGROUP.COM Visit us online at www.seafoodbusiness.com