About Wild Planet
McKinleyville, CA
www.wildplanetfoods.com
With a combined 35 years of experience in the seafood industry, Bill Carvalho and Bill McCarthy can safely say they know a lot about the seafood industry. Building off their experience with Carvalho Fisheries, the two founded Wild Planet with a commitment to sustainable seafood. By developing direct connections with fishermen and prioritizing the eco-preferable choice, they seek to become an example of a sustainable seafood business in everything from albacore tuna, to salmon, shrimp and more.
We had the good fortune of interviewing founder Bill Carvalho in a recent interview, who shed light on how and why his company operates as it does.
Chefs Collaborative: You’ve been involved in the fishing industry for over 20 years. What made you make the switch to sustainable fishing practices?
Bill Carvalho: Well, I had an epiphany standing in the Monterey Bay Aquarium. They had a very informative display on troubled oceans, and here I was, an industry insider, very connected to the harvesters, and I realized that I had a piece of the power to make change. After all, I had come from a very environmentally minded community in California.
Moving to sustainable fishing practices, we had to go in that direction with a faith that what we were doing was right and that it would pay off. Carvalho fisheries had begun in 1990 and we had previously engaged in bottom trawl products. In the shift to sustainable seafood, these were most of the products we discontinued — even though they were profitable. Generally, we’ve seen a real shift in the United States towards sustainable methods. We wanted to stand for higher standards of sustainability, as well as purity of ingredients and flavor. We founded Wild Planet with the goal of being the sustainable brand in the grocery isle. Initially, we were in debt, and it took five years to get our products in 600 stores, but the changes we made eventually earned us recognition by the Sea Change Investment Fund, a private equity firm seeded by the David and Lucille Packard Foundation. Sea Change Investment Fund offers funding for businesses that are promoting and marketing sustainable seafood. Once the private equity investment came in, we were able to expand to 3,000 stores within 18-24 months.
CC: How much of a learning curve was the shift?
BC: There’s a lot of really good information out there. The Monterey Bay Aquarium is a great resource, as are reviews of all of the fishery reports. I consult a number of different resources, because they each have their strengths and weaknesses. FishWise also has a great program that educates the consumer on rating levels, so they have a choice of which category they want to promote through their spending.
CC: How has your company evolved and how are you doing things differently?
BC: A major difference is that we’re actually on the waterfront, dealing with the boats doing special handling and working with processing companies to figure out what the possibilities are. We like creating things and doing things better than they have been done before which is why we’ve created the 32 ounce albacore tuna pouch to try to break into the food service industry. They are hand cut thin loin strips that are cooked in their pack to make a pristine product of rock star quality. But there is a price difference that is preventing them from selling strongly, they can’t compete with tongol tuna that is much cheaper, but also filled with water.
In May 2010 we are launching a new food service item: 66.5 oz can of pole-caught skipjack. This item will be much more price-competitive giving food service operators both price and a “Best Choice” green-rated tuna choice.
We’re also marketing albacore loins, and include two beautiful hand-cut albacore steaks in one vacuum sealed pack. As for the end pieces that don’t fit within the pack, we also sell 16 ounce packs of albacore tips for searing. Casson Trenor of Tataki Sushi Bar in San Francisco is going to use these albacore tips for sushi at the restaurant.
CC: What’s the status of your products in the food service realm?
BC: Our seafood is currently available through UNFI, Chef’s Warehouse, Nature’s Best, Goldberg & Solovy and Food Service of America. Incomplete distribution is currently a factor in growth. We are working with two regional distributors and are in the Paul Johnson’s Monterey Fish Market and Costarella Seafood in San Francisco. Of course, Wild Planet will ship directly to Our retail numbers are soaring but we would love to expand our market to chefs nationally.
CC: What are you most excited about for Wild Planet?
BC: We just launched California Sardines. Previously, California Sardines were being shipped to Australia for use on tuna farms. We thought, “Why are they being shipped there when we could be eating them here?” Additionally, as an eater of sardines, I always wished they could be different than they are conventionally presented. Usually, you open a can of sardines and the scales are both on the fish and floating in the can. We utilized a high pressure water system to blast off the scales, then hand cut them and extract most of the body cavity. They truly taste different than people expect, and are of an extremely high quality. We’re developing a food service size sardine pack for chefs and predict it to be successful.
