The high-end restaurants in Taipei are seeking for the highest quality of seafood from the local seafood markets. The crucial character of local seafood in the north coast of Taiwan is that vendors sale living fishes. The crucial reason is that there are many Buddhists buy the living fish so that they can return them into the ocean. However, living fishes are also a good product for these high-end restaurants because the character represents “high quality” and “local catching.”
“How to define the “local catching” seafood?”, “Does the work follow the inspiration of sustainability?” I’ve asked myself many times when I was working with the fishermen. I know I hold the high-end restaurants which seems like the stakeholder and can pay the highest prices in the seafood market.
Why not use the money from restaurants and help them to have the first found from the consumers? Then, they would have capitals to switch their skills.
Unfortunately, using a company to support a dream is very difficult. While my company connects to the relation between the restaurants and producer and the producers have enough income in the first month, they did not want to change their fishing skills and seek for a sustainable fishery. Instead, the high-end restaurants support the fishermen to catch fish by bottom trawling in the near-shore area (less than 3NM, 3NM-12NM, and the products were IUU).
Even though the restaurants’ general managers knew it is an illegal activity, but the cheapest prices in the market and the lack of power of prohibition lead the situation becomes worse. Uncomfortable cooperation is a cheat. It seems these Michelin Star restaurants just want to use the stars to sell products. It is the reason why: when we require them to carry the social responsibility and environmental responsibility in their selling, they have many reasons to circumvent the responsibilities on the local environment. The “local product using” is like a joke in the catering.
p.s. My company decided to stop providing services to these restaurants. Probably this decision will let my company has very long time cannot have a stable income. However, I hope the Micheline office can use top-down impact on these Michelin restaurants to follow the SDGs and take the social and environmental responsibility.
