Buy local, buy direct

With fewer fish to be had, Captain Mark Marhefka decided it was time to do business differently.

Dave Belanger came to the same conclusion when the recession socked the New York restaurant industry and affected demand for his clams.

Now, both men are appealing directly to the public. They are selling shares in their fish catch and seafood harvest like small farmers are doing through Community Supported Agriculture programs, or CSAs.

The idea is for producers and buyers to share risk as well as reward, and it’s emerged as sort of a business model for the “buy local” movement.

Belanger began selling shares in September, and Marhefka starts Jan. 1.

Marhefka, a commercial fisherman since 1979, has been a purveyor to local restaurants since moving his snapper-grouper boat, the Amy Marie, to Shem Creek about three years ago. Abundant Seafood, his business, counts about 20 restaurant clients.

He’s been a longtime supporter of fisheries management, but he also realizes there will be more restrictions on his catch in future years. So he is “cutting out some of the layers” to keep his market and money even closer to home.

“Why should I take the little fish I have and give it to a middle man?” Marhefka asks. “He doesn’t put his life on the line to get it, I do. He can buy it at the cheapest price and make a profit off it.”

Marhefka, a married father of two, foresees additional benefits from operating as a Community Supported Fishery. One is environmental: reduced fuel emissions because his fish won’t be shipped out of state. He also sees an opportunity for educating people about sustainable fisheries. Or simply showing them how to fillet and prepare various species of fish they may not be familiar with.

“My biggest thrill is being able to talk to the public and explain the resource that belongs to them,” he says.

Belanger, whose business goes by Clammer Dave’s Sustainable Gourmet, raises clams and harvests wild oysters on 25 acres he leases at Capers Inlet.

He was a clam farmer for nine years, selling exclusively to wholesalers in New York and Florida, before the economy turned sour in 2008. Restaurants there “took it on the chin,” he says, and demand fell sharply.

Belanger wanted a more predictable market, so he switched from selling out of state to all locally this year. And, like Marhefka, he has cultivated and won the business of several upscale Charleston restaurants.

Clammer Dave’s shares program launched in September “as a vehicle to be able to sell to the public,” says Belanger, who has sold about 10 shares to date.

Belanger’s shares are priced at $325. Oysters and clams may be delivered weekly or on demand until the share is used up, like a prepaid phone card. Fifty clams and/or oysters, the minimum order, are valued at $12.50.

Clams will be available year-round and oysters between mid-September and mid-May.

Abundant Seafood’s CSF is offering half-shares ($84) or whole shares ($210) over a 12-week period. Accordingly, shareholders can expect to get a total of 2-4 pounds or 8-10 pounds of fish monthly. They can opt for twice-a-month pickup.

Twenty-five shares have sold so far.

The most common fish will be vermilion snapper, triggerfish, black sea bass and red porgy. The catch also may include grouper, mahi-mahi and grunt.

The fish will be gutted but whole. Marhefka says there is a filleting station at the dock and people who can show others how.

Marhefka says there are only a handful of CSFs on the East Coast, mostly dealing with lobsters in the Northeast. He’s testing the waters, so to speak, and will be open to suggestions.

“It’s a whole new way of marketing our product. As less and less is allowed to be produced, we have to keep up our income. But it’s not a get-rich scheme at all. It’s nonstop work.”

Source: The Post and Courier