Maine's Seafood Appeal in Ethnic Communities

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Exploring Maine Seafood Retail Opportunities in Lowell

When we think of New England this time of the year, we think about pumpkin spice, fall foliage but the third Saturday in August in Lowell is home to one of the most diverse festivals in the United States. 60 to 80,000 people of Southeast Asian descent line the Merrimack River’s nearly one mile park with food, retail shops, sightseeing and community booths.

Lowell, Massachusetts is home to almost 35,000 Cambodian Americans and on the weekends, Cambodians from Lynn and Worcester Massachusetts and even Cambodians from Maine and New Hampshire shop at the Cambodian mile. There is about a mile of Cambodian owned restaurants and shops in downtown Lowell. I’ve been touting that Maine businesses can do a better job marketing it’s products and services to this and other racial and ethnic populations throughout New England and beyond.

Sea Maine and MTI gave us a grant to test out the theory that there is demand for Maine seafood with racial and ethnic communities especially Cambodian Americans in Lowell. Maine State Chamber partnered with Professor Richard Bilodeau of USM to gather seafood surveys at this festival, we also shared tables with CMAA - Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association who directed people to fill out our surveys, and we partnered with Maine Coastal Fishermen Association to hand out Maine caught fish as a thank you but also to prove that the Southeast Asian communities have a desire for Maine caught fish. In two hours, we collected 358 surveys and we distributed 4000 pounds of Maine caught fish: Dap, grey sole and Monk fish. The results were beyond our wildest expectations.

There were so many people filling out our surveys, the executive director of CMAA said, we literally clogged up and stopped traffic. Professor Bilodeau and I will write a report based on the survey results. Next steps could be marketing and placing more Maine caught fish in Lowell, Massachusetts. A good place to start could be the two Hannaford stores in Lowell, Massachusetts. We also need to educate this community on how to prepare Maine caught fish as well as more direct marketing to this population via social media in their language and platforms they use. We have just begun to scratch the surface on how to serve and sell more products to the over 2 million people of color who call Northern New England home.