Hors d’oeuvres Anyone?

Consumers are also looking for something a little different. For Jill Bentgen of the Mackinac Straits Fish Company in St. Ignace, the value-added concept spurred her to develop a line of specialty products. Bentgen, who worked in food product development for Proctor & Gamble, began her research in the early 1990s by asking two questions: What are the barriers that prevent people from eating fish? If these barriers can be overcome, would people eat more fish?

“The answer is yes,” says Bentgen. “They will if the quality is consistent, and the products are convenient. Everyone wants ready-to-eat, fully cooked products.”

Whitecaps Spread—a blend of whitefish, cream cheese and traditional seasonings—tops the list of the company’s most popular smoked fish products, followed by Lake Links (fully cooked and seasoned whitefish sausages) and smoked Lake Trout Spread. In Michigan, the products can be found in many retail outlets including Whole Foods Market and American Spoon Foods.

Other types of fish processing that add value to a product might include special packaging that make fish easier to use or adding flavors “so customers don’t have to mix marinade,” says Bentgen.

A number of Michigan fish processors also own their own retail outlets, restaurants or catering businesses, which are also considered value-added strategies because they deal directly with consumers.

Lake Superior fisherman Ralph Wilcox agrees that value-added strategies and high quality fish are critical in today’s economic climate. Wilcox divides his time between fishing Whitefish Bay for herring, lake whitefish, trout and chubs and preparing a portion of his catch for customers at his family’s business, Wilcox’s Fish House and Restaurant, just west of Brimley. In June, the restaurant marked its tenth anniversary.

These types of business ventures can be considered “direct marketing as opposed to selling to a wholesaler,” explains Michigan Sea Grant’s Chuck Pistis. “Instead of being a supplier, producers move up the ‘economic food chain’ and derive more value from their labors.”

However, Pistis notes, stimulating consumer demand for Great Lakes whitefish—within and outside the state—is still critical.

For her part, Jill Bentgen agrees. In addition to her retail outlet, she also owns a fish processing operation and supplies fresh whitefish fillets daily to a number of local stores and restaurants including the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island. These clients are critical, she says, because they also purchase the smoked products. “The fresh fish part of the business is still the largest part of the business,” says Bentgen. “You need a critical mass of fresh fillets to market the other products.”