REPORT TO BARENTS SECRETARIAT PROJECT "ARCTIC SEAFOOD"

About the project

Background In recent years, there has been an increased focus on the importance of food as part of a travel

experience (Hjalager 2002, Hjalager & Corigliano 2000). This is motivated by several factors. Firstly,

food may be an important element in the image of a destination and thus be an important element

to draw tourists to a destination (Bessiére, 1998). Secondly, food is important to a tourist destination

as tourists tend to spend a substantial amount of their holiday budget on food (UNWTO, 2012).

Finally food is important in enhancing visitors’ holiday experience (Boyne et al., 2003; Nield et al.,

2000) which will influence repurchase intentions and word-of-mouth promotion, thus increasing the

number of future visitors to a destination (Kim et al., 2011; Pranic et al., 2013). Considering the

estimated 200 million meals that are consumed by tourists per day in international tourism markets,

this represents a considerable market and much can be gained economically from improving food

offers and food service to tourists.

Tourism is a developing industry in the Barents Region. Regarding the geographical region in focus

for this project, Finnmark and Murmansk, Arctic food is becoming an important part of the services

that are offered to travellers. This counts for both leisure travel and travellers in the MICE-segment

(Meetings, Incentive, Conferences, Events). However, there are often challenges related to food

distribution (fresh food), competence and work force that has to be solved when planning for serving

quality and special (local) food in the tourism industry. Among the ongoing initiatives that our project

has been linked up to is a cooperation between the Seafood Center/Opus at High School in Vardø

and Varanger Meny on the production of new seafood menus. Varanger Meny is an enterprise

established from Vardø Hotel. Varanger Meny also arranged a workshop during the Pomor Days in

Vardø in July 2015, to which both Norwegian and Russian chefs and seafood producers was invited.

Vardø High School has also for some time collaborated with Murmansk Industrial College. This

collaboration has overall been on technical educational programs but as the college educate

personnel to the maritime sector, it also has a program for chefs and stewards. Further, the High

School in Kirkenes has a cooperation program with the restaurant at Park Inn Hotel in Murmansk. In

this students from the High School have internships at the restaurant at Park Inn Hotel in Murmansk,

preparing Norwegian dishes for different events.

Project goals The goal of our pilot project has been to identify the potential/resources (projects, enterprises and

institutions) and the barriers for the development of a profitable food tourism in the Finnmark and

Murmansk region. The output of this will be suggestions for a main project in which the scope will be

extended to include food tourism in Finnmark, Murmansk, Karelen and Lappland.

Project partners Institution Contact person

Norway:

Akvaplan–niva AS Trude Borch

Varanger Meny AS, Vardø Tor-Emil Sivertsen

Vardø videregående skole (Sjømatsenteret/Opus) Leif Arne Haughom

Russia:

North Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI) Tatiana Fedorei

Committee of industry and entrepreneur development of the Murmansk region

Oleg N. Kostenko

Murmansk State Technical University (food industry technology department)

Vadim A. Grokhovsky

Professional college named after N.E. Momot Vadim A. Mileev

Restaurant “Pinta”, Murmansk Olga Yu. Rusina

Tourist association “The Gulf Stream” Irina V. Abozovik

Project tasks

Task

WP 1 Mapping Murmansk

WP 2 Mapping Finnmark

WP 3 Workshop

WP 4 Develop educational program

WP 5 Design full application, main project

WP 6 Breakout session on “Arctic Seafood” at Arctic Frontiers Business 2016

All of the tasks were pursued as planned however WP 6 did not end up being a breakout session at

the conference Arctic Frontiers Business in Tromsø. This was instead broken down into two different

events; a side-event on Arctic Tourism as well as a seafood event in which two Russian and two

Norwegian chefs prepared seafood for a conference buffet dinner. These events were arranged 26

and 27 January 2016 in Tromsø, Norway (See below).

WP 1 Mapping Murmansk The mapping in Murmansk included 16 restaurants and 21 seafood producers. From the mapping it

was clear that the actors here face many (more than in Finnmark, see below) barriers for serving

seafood in restaurants. The main barrier being the availability of fresh seafood, high prices for

seafood and strict and bureaucratic health regimes. Another barrier is the competence of personnel

(chefs and waiter), both regarding skills in preparing seafood and language skills (for serving foreign

guests/tourists). The study showed that most seafood producers do not work with the restaurants

(only 3 of the 21 studied fish suppliers deliver fish and sea products to Murmansk restaurants). The

main reason for this is that it is not profitable for the fishing companies to sell to the restaurants

because of small volumes of orders from the separate restaurants. The most of the seafood

producers can offer a big variety of seafood products to the restaurants and they are ready to deliver

to the restaurants if the volume is high enough and guaranteed in advance order from the

restaurants. The way out from this situation could be creation of some Union of catering enterprises,

which can organize raw supply logistic. It can be one of the tasks to be included for the future

development in the main project.

The study showed that the restaurants have fairly qualified professional specialists, but lack of

technologists and waiters. It will give us a reason to make the corresponding recommendations for

the educational institutions. Further, the restaurants are very experienced in using all kinds of

promotion channels, but few are flexible regarding changing their opening hours in accordance with

different seasons and organizing its working schedules to meet the demands of customers.

The majority of the restaurants collaborates within different networks and with educational

institutions, but none cooperate with research institutions and correspondently have limited

possibility to develop new products with the help of scientific innovations.

The analysis of customers showed that the number of foreign visitors has decreased (especially from

Northern Europe) and that the number of Russian tourists to the Murmansk region has increased.

Also a new category of tourists has started visiting the region, Chinese tourists. This change should be

taken to account when developing menus.

All restaurants have a big variety of dishes, acceptable for all age categories. Regarding customer

preferences meat dishes are in higher demand than seafood dishes (especially dishes of reindeer

meat). The explanation to this can be that the offers of quality seafood dishes are not good enough

or that prices for seafood dishes are high. This illustrates, again, the importance of organising fish

supplying logistic and to avoid these problems.

As to the nowadays raw materials supply, all restaurants get raw material from both the producers

and retailer depending on quality and price. Almost all restaurants use raw materials for cooking

dishes and do not use half made products or ready made products. This has a positive effect on the

quality of the dishes.

WP 2 Mapping Finnmark An electronic questionnaire (developed in collaboration with the Russian partners and tested

beforehand) was sent out to 24 restaurants in Finnmark May 18, 2016. As very few responded, a

reminder was sent out on email by one of the Finnmark partners June 24. The reason for this

reminder being sent out by a partner in the industry was that this actor has a closer relation to the

restaurants and that this would maybe enhance the response rate. However, by the end of July, still

very few had responded (3 responses) and over the holiday the restaurants were therefore

contacted by phone.

WP 3 Workshop on Arctic Seafood Tourism The workshop took place in Murmansk March 15 2016. The workshop was planned in collaboration

between Akvaplan-niva and North Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Murmansk. 70 persons had

registered for the event but the actual number that participated was 54. (6 from Norway and 48 from

Russia). There was a broad participation both from food supply, restaurants, the tourism industry

and educational institutions. The event, which was jointly moderated by Tatjana Fedorei (NCCI) and

Trude Borch (Akvaplan-niva), had 10 speakers, 4 from Norway and 6 from Russia (For program, see

Attachment I).

Photo: Opening talk by Ole Andreas Lindeman, General Consul of the Royal Norwegian

Consulate General in Murmansk (Photo by NCCI).

The event was covered by Russian press. After their presentations the speakers were handed

seafood gifts particularly prepared for the event and sponsored by … The event was covered by

Russian press. After the presentations the participants were divided in 3 groups for more in depth

discussions. (See below). The seafood lunch at the event was prepared by….

Photo: Traditional seafood dishes for lunch (Photo: Trude Borch)

In the evening there was a joint seafood reception by the project, the General Consulate of Norway

and Norway-Russian Chamber of Commerce. About 150 people participated in this event where the

food was prepared by students from Kirkenes High School.

Photo: Students and teachers from Kirkenes High School.

Report from working groups

GROUP 1 (Trude Borch)

Pål Dørmænen (chef) from Norway told that 15 years ago nobody wanted seafood in his restaurant

but now 80 % of the guests buy seafood dishes. Murmansk also see an increase in seafood demand in

restaurants, particularly for tourists that come from other parts of Russia and think of Murmansk as a

seafood region. There is in fact an increased demand for all kinds of local foods. A representative

from the educational sector told that her university set up courses to meet this interest in local food.

Also there is more resources put into identifying the different kinds of local moss, berries, reindeer.

As part of the thesis of the students of food in this university the students develop their own food

produce. From the Russian participants we also learned that there has been a decrease in the

demand for outdoor recreational activities and an increase in indoor tourism included food,

sightseeing, festivals and an increased interest for buying food souvenirs. Other of the Russian

delegates said that there is a demand for seafood but a lack of offers, information and they

suggested to make food tours. Others argued for the importance of a quality mark for food services

in the country.

We also learned that the administration in Murmansk has ran a 2-year project to investigate why

restaurants do not serve local foods to meet the increasing demand. There was also mention of "The

Taste of the Arctic" which is an event that is arranged annually some weeks before new year. Now

the organisers of this event are preparing a gastronomic map (with local farms etc.). Quality was

forwarded as the most important problem from the Russian participants, that is restaurants are ok

but there are challenges related to the quality of raw material. Moscow, St.Petersburg and Tibirnika

are better at marketing Murmansk products than food service in Murmansk others argued

A representative from Maxime restaurant in Murmansk said that "Before we used frozen but now we

utilize fresh fish. We also use local beef, local reindeer meat, bear, moose, elk, wild birds,

mushrooms and berries, for instance, we make a cloudberry porridge based on a traditional recipe.

We have also made 3 books about local foods".

Some participants told that it is challenging to use local foods as it is seasonal. Trude Borch from

Akvaplan-niva presented some examples from how to solve this from Vancouver Canada where they

lengthen the season for local produce through different types of food preservation techniques. From

Russia we also learned that it is challenging that there is a demand for veterinarian licences for all

local products as this is a time consuming task. However, there is some work going on now with the

administration to change this. From Norway it was stated that if restaurants make formal

agreements with food producers this may make it easier to work with quality as well as make the

process with licences and certificates easier.

A representative from a Murmansk restaurant said that as her restaurant is located at the port it is

easy to get fish. She added that she would like to see a stronger focus on coastal as well as Pomor

food traditions. Others mentioned a book on how the inhabitants in Murmansk survived on local

produce during the war and that this could be part of the story telling about Murmansk as a food

region. The delegates also argued for a strengthened communication between food producers and

tourism operators but that there are some obstacles to this as it is not legal to visit to food

producers. A question from the Russian delegates to the participants from Norway was raised to

enquire if Norway can identify the factors that explain an increased demand for seafood in

restaurants? The answer from the Norwegian delegation was:

- General increase in international tourists

- Tourists look for food traditional of the region

- Many think about Norway as a seafood nation and ask for seafood in restaurants.

- The Seafood Council of Norway both market fish from Norway AND Norway as a travel

destination so food and tourism is already linked in the generic marketing from this

organisation.

From Russian participants we learned that food events are important, that local street food is little

developed and that it would be good to develop food for excursions. A Norwegian representative

mentioned "love lunch" a paper bag with local produce for nature excursion.

From Russia it was highlighted that factors like high prices for fish and little communication between

tour operators and restaurants are barriers to developing seafood tourism. From the Maxime

Restaurants we heard that they have made menu changes which also include fast food like "Tundra

Food Bar" but still only a few local dishes.

The representative from Ponoi River Camp told that tourists visiting catch fish and harvest in the

forest. These are demanding customers and it would be good to show new ways of cooking to these.

Food souvenirs are also in demand here. From Norway we learned that tourists can bring back with

them vacuumed packed fish.

GROUPS 2 (Tatjana Fedorei)

Some of the Russian delegates presented a model on how to shorten the time from producer to

restaurants, either directly from producer to restaurant or via retailer. According to some it is a

barrier that the restaurants are so little organised and that if they could join forces in ordering

products from food producers this would make it easier and more predictable for the food

producers. Such organisation would also possibly reduce prices. The food producers mentioned

mussels, sea urchins, crab and lake fish from southern Murmansk as produce that would demand a

larger market to make it more feasible for the food producers to deliver. Somebody launched the

idea to establish a ware house in Murmansk like the one they have in Moscow. It was also mentioned

that there had been efforts to set up this several times but that this had failed. From Norway it was

interesting to listen to chef Tor Emil Sivertsen, telling about the experience of the Norwegian fish

suppliers of delivering food directly to the restaurants.

The representatives a Russian fish supplying company told that they have many problems with direct

deliveries of fish and sea products to the restaurants. These include small volumes, payment, sanitary

and veterinarian certificates for each delivering lot and other bureaucratic rules. It was outlined that

it will be easier to work with catering companies if they organized in some kind of association in the

Murmansk region. The fisheries representative argued that this would help to resolve problems

related to volumes, payments etc. The results of the discussion were presented by fisheries

representatives Artemiev Uriy and Pave Vasilievich Vinogradov. These actors have freezing storage

facilities in the port and can supply volumes of different fish to the restaurants and stated that they

are ready to start this through signing direct agreements with the catering association.

GROUP 3 (Rune Rautio)

Question: Do the educational institutions know about the needs of the restaurants?

There is in general a lack of good chefs and waiters as this is a low status occupation. This counts for

both Norway and Russia. In Russia 15-20 students are education per semester from Murmansk State

Technical University, in addition restaurants train their own personnel. Some stated that there is a

lack of regulation of this profession in Russia. Regarding the adjustment of the educational programs

to fit with the demand of the restaurant industry we learned that there here is a room for 20 %

change in Norwegian high schools and 50 % in higher educational level in Russia.

Question: Does the personnel in restaurants have the competencies about how to prepare and serve

traditional food?

It was argued that very few of the personnel in Murmansk have this competence. Also in Russia there

is a much to high focus on the chefs and little on the organisation around the chefs (management,

specialists, economy, purchase routines etc.). There is also a lack of knowledge among waiters and

they often have no clue what they are serving in Murmansk restaurants.

Question: Is there an increased interest among students for local food?

Not among the lower level but at the higher level education we see this.

Photo: Reporting from working groups (Photo by Trude Borch)

Evaluation of the conference Participation: There could have been more Norwegian delegates but this was challenging to achive

because of this being a busy period for chefs. The representation of Russian delegates was high and

we there was a surprisingly high representation from food producers. 70 registered for the event and

54 persons showed up. Venue: Regarding the venue this was ok but there were some minor technical

difficulties during workshops (music playing and now microphone). Interpretation. The

interpretations services worked well. Lunch and dinner. We were served exciting seafood dishes that

was in line with the theme of the conference. It was unfortunate that the Norwegian chefs did not

get to take part in the dinner preparations (due to the need for Russian health certificates).

Presentations. The presentations were very good and varied as they were held by representatives

from the educational sector, food suppliers, restaurants and the tourism industry. The gifts that were

handed out to speakers (a local seafood souvenir) was well received. We were running late but good

with the discussions and also we managed to quit the conference on time. Working groups. The

participants were very engaged in the discussions and it would have been good to have had different

rooms for the 3 groups as it was difficult to hear some of the arguments that was forwarded. It was

positive that there were many suggestions for further steps to increase seafood tourism like:

- create a network of restaurants that can coordinate their ordering of food towards food

suppliers. (NCCI stated that their organisation is in a position to lobby on this issue).

- Use chefs from fishing vessels in classes as they are trained in preparing seafood

- Work to reduce time consuming veterinary processes

- Get students more involved in NO-RU relations. Use the experiences that Vardø High School

has on this field

- Also arrange masterclasses for chefs

- Many collaboration possibilities between NO and RU not least since we have many of the

same raw materials

- work on language (English) skills of Russian students as they lack motivation in Murmansk

due to few international tourists

- Waiters often change working place and difficult to train them in local foods and an idea to

develop an online training system like they have at Thon Hotel Lofoten in Norway was

launced

- change educational systems to provide restaurants with a more suitable personnel, e.g. add

a regional food component.

- Include more practical training in the Russian food curriculum. During the 5-year educational

program Russian students have only 1 month of practical training.

WP 4 Develop educational programs We did not set out to develop new educational programs but the input from the workshop can be

applied in the adjustment of these programs. During the pre-project we collected information on

issues related to education for the catering industry from educational institutions and specialists

from the catering industry. The project identified the following recommendations for joint NO-RU

initiatives to improve food education:

To establish international creative teams including Bachelors and Masters on “catering

organization and technologies of food production” from MSTU, RUC (Russia, Murmansk),

universities from Sweden, Norway, Finland for joint development of new unique culinary fish

dishes, combined products based on aquatic and terrestrial food produce from the Arctic Region

(like berries, venison, seaweed, shellfish, mosses, roots, herbs etc.)

Set up international master classes for students and graduates in institutions education work

force for the catering industry with participation from reputable Russian and foreign food

specialists for practical skills and education in the design and preparation of original culinary

dishes and food products.

Organize joint events for efficient experience transfer and for improving educational programs,

such as alternate visits of Bachelors and Masters of the catering and food technology

specialization to Russian and Norwegian institutions for higher education.

Develop additional educational programs such as "National cuisines" and "European cuisine" for

the students in “Food technologies and catering organizing” departments.

Prepare a joint Russian-Norwegian program for Master students, including practical development

of fish dishes and dishes from fish-and vegetables, as well as dishes with the use of northern

herbal raw material such as red bilberry, black crowberry, blueberry, reindeer moss which

contains high valuable macro- and microelements, organic acids and carbohydrates.

Joint mini project (Russian and Norwegian parties) on the creation of wide assortment of

innovative culinary products with the use of aquatic biological resources and herbal raw

materials for baby food, gerontological food and sports food.

WP 5 Design full application, main project Geography: Finnmark, Murmansk, Karelen, Finnish Lappland.

Food sector: Seafood, freshwater fish, forest harvest and meat.

Partners: New partners will be Nofima and Finnish Lapland Tourist Board.

Duration of project: 2017 – 2019

Budget: 30 mill NOK

Deadline: The call will come in October.

WP 6 Arctic Seafood and Arctic Tourism events at the Arctic Frontiers

conference in Tromsø Norway

As mentioned above WP 6 did not end up being a breakout session on Arctic Seafood at the

conference Arctic Frontiers Business in Tromsø Norway but two different events, a seafood event in

which two Russian and two Norwegian chefs prepared seafood for a buffet dinner during the

conference as well as a side-event on Arctic Tourism. In the Arctic Tourism event speakers from

Russia, Norway, Scotland and Germany participated (For program, see Attachment II).

Photo: Russian and Norwegian chefs present the menu at Arctic Frontiers seafood event (Photo by

Arctic Frontiers).

Attachment I: Program workshop Murmansk, March 15, 2016

Venue: Hotel “Polyarnye Zori Park Inn”

Moderators: Tatjana Fedorei and Trude Borch

09.45-10.00 – Registration (welcome tea-coffee)

10.00 -10.20 - Welcome talk and conference opening by Ole Andreas Lindeman, General

Consul of the Royal Norwegian Consulate General in Murmansk, Anna Popova, Head of the

Tourist Department of the Ministry for the Development of Industry and Entrepreneurship of

the Murmansk region and Anatoliy M. Glushkov, President Northern Chamber of Commerce

and Industry (NCCI) .

10.20 -10.40 - Presentation of project aim, status and further plans. Trude Borch, Project

Manager, Akvaplan-niva

10.40 -11.00 – Project realization in Murmansk. Mapping results. Tatiana Fedorei, Director

of the International Center of Arctic Cooperation of North Chamber of Commerce and

Industry (NCCI).

11.00 – 11.20 – Cross-sectoral branding. “Made in Arctic”. Perspectives on food tourism

development in the Murmansk region. Anna Popova, Head of the Tourist Department of the

Ministry for the Development of Industry and Entrepreneurship of the Murmansk region.

11.20 - 11.40 – coffee break

11.40 – 12.00 – The customers want to know: where, when and how. Eco-labels and

independent product certification. Artur Iljasov, Deputy General Director of Foreign Affairs

of Union of Fishermen of the North.

12.00 – 12.15 – Cooperation between educational institutions and food enterprises, Russian

Perspective. Vadim Miliev, Director of the Murmansk Construction College.

12.15 – 12.30 - Cooperation between educational institutions and food enterprises,

Norwegian perspective. Leif Arne Haughom, Department Manager OPUS Seafood Centre at

Vardø High School.

12.30 – 12.50 - Branding network for restaurants "100 % Varanger", Tor Emil Sivertsen,

Manager Varanger Menu.

12.50 –13.10 - Importance of Arctic menu in tourism promotion. The experience of a tourist

company. Irina Volkova, Director "Umba Discovery", Umba .

13.10 -14.10 – lunch

14.10 -14.20 – Presentation of working groups and working group tasks (by group

moderators Fedorei, Borch and Rautio)

14.20 – 15.20 - Working groups (60 min)

15.20 – 16.20 – The moderators present results of working groups for the plenum

16.20 – 16.40 – Final coffee break

19.00: Buffet Dinner at Poljarnij Zori Park Inn in collaboration with the Royal

Norwegian Consulate General in Murmansk and the Norwegian-Russian

Chamber of Commerce

Attachment II: Program Arctic Tourism event Arctic Frontiers, Tromsø January 27, 2016

08.45 Introduction by organizer

Fishing Tourism Session

09.00

09.30

10.00

Andree Hörmann, Din Tur Germany, Sea fishing tourism –market trends in Germany

Anatoly Lukin, Director of The State Fishery Research Institute in St. Petersburg, Salmon fishing tourism in the Murmansk and Karelia region

Discussion

10.10 Coffee break & mingling

Whale Tourism Session

10.40 Sigurstein Másson, International Fund for Animal Welfare, Whale watching in Iceland

11.10 Hin Hoarau-Heemstra, Associate Professor Nord University Business School, Innovation in Nordic whale-

watching: challenges and possibilities

11.40 David Lusseau, University of Aberdeen, The scope for sustainable growth of whale watching

12.10 Discussion

12.20 Lunch

Cruise Tourism Session

13.10 Sergey Katikov, Russian Geographical Society – Tourism at the North Pole at Barneo Ice Camp

13.40 Sergey Shirokiy, Head of Tourism Department at National Park “Russian Arctic”, Cruise Tourism to Franz Josef

land

14.10

14.40

Ronny Brunvoll, Visit Svalbard, Sustainable Tourism Development in Svalbard

Discussion

14.50 Coffee break and mingling

Aurora Tourism Session

15.10 Sergey Cernuous, Professor Polar Geophysical Institute, Aurora tourism on Kola Peninsula

15.40 Anders Hanssen, Aurora Skycam, Norway Arctic Aurora Tourism

16:10 Discussion and Moderator sum up

16.30 End