Our Traceability

A Legacy of Quality & Progress

Wood’s Fisheries has been fishing in the Gulf since the mid-1800s. Since then, we have evolved into a premier producer of Gulf and South Atlantic shrimp. It has been 150 years since our company was founded, but our mission has never changed – to deliver the world’s tastiest shrimp. We may be one of the oldest shrimp producers in the United States, but we consider ourselves one of the most progressive and intuitive producers.

Why Traceability Matters

We realize that while taste is the number one concern to consumers, as it is to us, however, there are many other issues to consider to make sure we continue to provide tasty shrimp. Around the office and plant, you will hear words like sustainability and traceability in almost every discussion. On the surface, those ideas seem self-explanatory, and you may find yourself asking, “What does that have to do with the flavor and quality?”

Sustainability & Shrimping

From Tradition to Regulation

From the early years of shrimping, the goal of the boats has been to catch as many shrimp as possible in the shortest amount of time possible. Sustainability practices have been going on just as long as we have been shrimping on a commercial level; there was just not a formal term(s) put to it, and it was not under regulation. Sustainability and loading the boats with as many shrimp as possible may seem like they are opposite, but in the Gulf and South Atlantic, they go hand in hand.

Understanding the Shrimp Life Cycle

Shrimp are a very resilient animal. Most species of shrimp have a very short life cycle, just 9-18 months, but during that short life cycle, one shrimp can produce over 50,000 eggs. This is why conservation and governmental groups are not concerned with the shrimp stock reduction due to overfishing. However, there are many other factors to consider than just overfishing. These items include shrimp habitat, both the coastal spawning areas and deeper offshore waters, bycatch, and the socioeconomic impact of the fishery. You can find detailed information on these issues and Wood’s Fisheries’ response in our Sustainability Commitment.

Traceability: The Key to Sustainability

Seeing the Whole Journey

Traceability, in its simplest form, is being able to see where the product is being caught and what stores or restaurants it ends up at. However, Wood’s Fisheries sees traceability in a much more detailed way; we believe that you can’t have true sustainability and fishery improvements without traceability.

We require detailed logs, both electronic and hand, for all of the issues concerning sustainability. These items are recorded and verified for any customer or end consumer to view. For our customers, we are 100% transparent; if you want to know every step in the supply chain, it’s at your fingertips. If you would like to know quality information, it’s always available. If you, as a buyer, want to know how cold the freezer on the boat was for the entire fishing trip, you can have that on your traceability report.

What You Can Track

For buyers, you can get your full Quality Assurance data, Trace Map, Boat, Dock, and shrimp information in a detailed report from Trace Register. The available boat information are items such as scientific name, catching county, boat name, catch zone, gear used, trawl time for each drag, By-Catch ratio, time in which it takes shrimp to get from the water to frozen on board, freezing time, brine temperature at time of freezing, brine salinity at time of freezing, frequency in which brine water is changed, and the holding freezer temperature.

The trace map will show not only the general area of the catch but also specifically where the shrimp you are buying come from. Most boats only record one zone as the catch area when they could have been caught in multiple zones, as they stay out for up to 45 days and can shrimp from North Carolina to the Florida Keys back around to the Texas–Mexico border. They may have 5 species of shrimp on one trip from 15 different catch areas. We require all boats to provide us with detailed logs of each drag. The shrimp are separated by drag using a tag system.

Transparent Partnerships

Wood’s Fisheries has partner docks all along the East Coast and in every state on the Gulf Coast. Just like many other shrimp suppliers, we buy shrimp from different docks to meet our customers’ needs. The industry standard has been to never let anyone know what boat or dock you are partnering with. We believe in building relationships with not only our customers but also any supplier we may partner with. This relationship develops trust and allows us to show the complete supply chain so our customers can be 100 percent confident in the true origin of the product.

The reports also show all of our Quality Assurance checkpoints and results for every lot of shrimp. We include data from the RAW material check-in, temperature data throughout the IQF process, and the final Quality Control Check Points. These items include: % of black spot (melanosis), % of heat damage, Glaze %, any additives and their levels, % of Freezer Burn, and many other issues about the quality of the finished product.

Technology That Connects Everyone

QR Codes for Buyers & Consumers

For Seafood or Restaurant managers, we provide a QR code on the master carton that will take you to our market module built for mobile devices. This information comes from the same information on the traceability document from Trace Register. The buyer can filter what information is shown on the module for the store managers. Each store will have a unique QR code that is permanent for them. The manager can then link the master carton QR code to their permanent QR code using an app (IOS, Android, or Windows) from Trace Register. This eliminates the need to change any static clings or signage with every case of shrimp.

The retail-ready bags (16 or 32 oz) will have the QR code incorporated into the design in such a way as to entice the consumer to scan the bag. The consumer information is fed from the same Trace Register document and can have as little or as much information as the buyer sees fit. Some other items that can be included when the end user traces their product include: recipes, best uses for size and type, species comparison, vessel biography, captain biography, Wood’s Fisheries story, and sustainability commitments from the retailer; the items are limitless.

Inspiring Participation

The idea of all of this is great, but if one link in the supply chain does not buy in, then it’s all for naught.

Supporting the Sustainability Movement

Wood’s Fisheries is committed to helping the Gulf and South Atlantic become the sustainability benchmark for all fisheries improvement projects. We pay more to the boats that are willing to put in the extra work and who will be transparent with us. This is the first step in becoming a Wood’s Premium Shrimp. If it is in our Wood’s Premium box, it is from a FIP participation boat.

We partner with retailers that share the same concern for the fishery as we do. We hope that all of our retailers will join us in the push for a sustainable product. The whole of the sustainability movement is pushed from the consumer level. They are the ones who are asking the seafood workers in the retail markets the questions, who then turn to the buyers, who put the pressure on their suppliers, until that pressure reaches the boats. Now it’s time to give the information to the guys in the market to answer the questions with validated data to back it up. The market workers need to be able to get the consumer to scan the QR code; they need to create excitement around the fact that the shrimp are the best and truly all-natural.