Monterey Bay is home to some of the most sustainably managed fisheries in the world—yet today, roughly 90% of the seafood consumed in the U.S. comes from other countries. The Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust (MBFT), with funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, engaged KK&P to explore a solution: a seafood-based food hub, or "fish hub," designed to reconnect local fishermen with local and regional restaurants, supermarkets, and cafeterias.
Food hubs have emerged across the country as a way to help farmers and ranchers connect with institutional buyers—schools, hospitals, universities—as well as grocery stores and restaurants, offering producers affordable access to aggregation, distribution, marketing, and processing services. While the model is well established for land-based agriculture, seafood-focused food hubs remain rare.
KK&P led a feasibility study to determine whether the fish hub model could work in Monterey Bay. The team reviewed relevant secondary research, conducted stakeholder interviews, and identified and tested a set of functions and services a fish hub could offer to leverage local assets and meet local needs. KK&P also undertook financial modeling to understand the true costs of fishing trips—by trip length, species, and boat size—and how those costs relate to pricing in the premium seafood markets a fish hub would aim to serve. Finally, KK&P supported MBFT in identifying strong financial institution partners to provide scale-appropriate capital and technical assistance.
The result was a clear, financially grounded picture of how a fish hub could reward local fishermen for their investment in sustainable practices while rebuilding community access to fresh, local, affordable seafood.