From Crisis to Opportunity: Developing a Virtual Marketplace to Enhance Sustainability and Resilience in Small-Scale Fisheries

In a context in which climate change, overexploitation, and environmental degradation are continuously progressing, the sustainable use of the sea is a key target, both for resources and fishery operators. With the aim of enhancing the sustainability and competitiveness of the entire fishery sector, an innovation brokering event was organized. Via the application of a participatory, interactive, and bottom-up approach, different actors in the Italian SSF sector were stimulated to work together to find innovative solutions to day-by-day problems. During the consultation, and between the identified problems, emerged the lack of cooperation for marketing activity and effective strategies for seafood product development. A pilot action consisting in co-designing a virtual marketplace (VirMa) was the result of the event, intending to facilitate the direct sale of seafood products, explore this new and valuable market, and establish a direct line with consumers. The VirMa application was developed as a value chain network, trying to add value to seafood products. However, an information and communication tool, such as a VirMa, could contribute to increasing the resilience of the SSF sector to market constraints even during unforeseen events, such as a pandemic.