BettaFish’s Post

Last week was a “fair”ly busy week for Team BettaFish 👀 We’ve been all over recently... Maybe you already caught Deniz Ficicioglu’s post about her time in Thailand? But what else have we been up to? 🚆 🟢 Thao Trinh, Lilith Gawol and Lisa-Marie Kuhn were in Vienna for #veganmania. Although it rained a bit, the team did a great job selling our TU-NAN Cans and Jars and connecting with our fans! 70% of the customers we spoke to already knew us or had seen our sandwiches at BILLA AG, which is pretty cool 🫶 P.S: Our TU-NAH Sandwiches are on offer at BILLA this week! 🟢 Sarah Decoine and Thorsten Behnk were at the World Travel Catering & Onboard Services Expo where they reconnected with old friends (some we’ve known since our first trade show in 2022!) and gained some valuable insights about the catering needs of the airline & travel industries ✈️ 🟢 Deniz was at THAIFEX - Anuga Asia - one of the biggest international food fairs globally 🌍 where she ran into Ugo Bataillard 🔨 from GourmetPro - Food & Beverage Experts, one of the leading experts in F&B innovation and market expansion, and met local ecosystem leaders like Paradai Adisayathepkul from Betagro Ventures, Maarten Geraets and Yung-Ho Ophelia Wang who’s pushing the boundaries of health food. Her biggest learning? We still have a lot to learn to make seaweed mainstream in Europe! 🚀 #seaweed #tradeshow #regenerativeagriculture #networking #plantbased #wtce2024 #veganmania #thaifexanuga

International expansion can be one of the biggest challenges when scaling up a food business. There are just so many things you need to deeply understand: the competitive landscape, pricing, margins & taxes, your ICP or target consumer, what certifications you need… all of which is probably different than in your domestic market. 🌍 It’s an incredibly exciting but daunting process, which is why it is essential to have the right partners on board to take some of the weight of your shoulders. 😌 Introducing our new partner Brandplant - the plantbased Benelux distributor! We love working with Gertjan Kruijk, Erik van Gangelen and Dirk Schnellen from Brandplant because: They are personal fans of the product. 💜 This reassures us that they are going into meetings with our best interests at heart. They only have one product per category. 🛒 So they don’t have to split potential market share between competing brands. They want to work with us actively, together. 🤝🏻 The distributor x supplier partnership works best as just that - a partnership. We have a brand reputation to maintain and it’s important that all our potential customers get the same touchpoint experience, regardless of what country they’re in. They believe in the growth of the category and know our ICP. 🫰🏻 By focussing on plant-based, Brandplant already know who our ideal customers are and where they are likely to win deals. Frequent catch-ups are essential in maintaining a good relationship and keeping each other abreast of industry developments in our respective countries. This saves us a lot of time on market research and helps us make strategic decisions faster, together. We are delighted to be joining the ranks of VFC®, OGGS®, Meatless Farm, Clive's Purely Plants, and PerfectTed and can’t wait to launch with the first partners in BENELUX! 🔥 #foodservice #partnership #startups #foodtech #seaweed #vegan #plantbased #horeca #gastronomy

Did you catch us at GREENTECH FESTIVAL in Berlin last week? Thao Trinh, Lisa-Marie Kuhn and Lilith Gawol were there to sell our TU-NAH cans and even sampled some seaweed-flavored popcorn! 🍿 It was inspiring to see and network with so many impact-oriented startups including our friends at Happy Ocean Foods who are helping us shape the plant-based seafood category. 🌱 However, the highlight of the event was our Pizza Happy Hour in collaboration with our partner Milano Vice. As always, the feedback from attendees who tried our TU-NAH pizza was golden! 💛 #GreentechFestival #sustainability #foodtech #innovation #Startups #berlin #regenerativeagriculture

🌊🐟Did you know that according to the International Labour Organization, over 24 million people work in the global fishing industry, many of whom face exploitative working conditions? From forced labor to human rights abuses, the dark side of cheap seafood production cannot be ignored. Moreover, unsustainable fishing practices contribute to the depletion of marine ecosystems, threatening biodiversity and food security for coastal communities worldwide. 🚢 While the 42% increase in global seafood consumption over recent decades has been good for the growth of the industry and local economies (source: FoodUnfolded), there has been a surge in demand for cheap seafood, putting pressure on fishing communities to drop prices and employ illegal practices to remain competitive internationally. 💰 The main problems are: 🥷🏻The “invisible workforce” at sea - it is hard to monitor and enforce labour standards 🛄 Harsher working conditions - due to greater demand for seafood and depleted supply, fishing vessels are often forced to undertake longer trips further from home 🫰🏻Corruption, illegal and unregulated fishing in many countries from which we in Europe import our seafood While there are some approaches to counter these problems politically, a very quick win is to simply reduce the demand for imported seafood. 🐟 As consumers, we hold the power to influence this directly. Seaweed cultivation offers a future-proof alternative source of income for fishing communities, making them less dependent on unsustainable practices. So next time you go to grab a can of tuna, why not reach for TU-NAH instead? 🌱 Throwback picture of BettaF!sh CEO Deniz Ficicioglu visiting our seaweed farm a few years ago as we got started! #seaweed #regenerativeagriculture #fishing #sdg14 #oceanhealth #sustainability #altseafood

What is mercury, why is it bad and what does it have to do with seafood nutrition? 🌱🍣 A recent study highlighted in SeafoodSource reported that mercury levels in tuna fish have shown little change over five decades and that they continue to be too high. 👎🏻 ❓But what is it and how does it even enter our food system? Mercury is a naturally occurring element that has entered into global food chains as a result of human activities like mining and burning fossil fuels.🔥 In the ocean, microorganisms transform mercury into a toxic element that accumulates in fish and shellfish over time - accelerated by ocean acidification and warmer sea temperatures. 🌡️ This increase in mercury contamination presents a significant threat to human health, as exposure to high levels of mercury can lead to serious neurological and developmental issues, especially in vulnerable populations such as pregnant women and young children. 👩👦👦 This discovery underscores the impact of climate change on our oceans and the importance of exploring alternative protein sources. 🔍 ❓Why isn’t seaweed affected? Our seaweeds are harvested after just 6 months, meaning there is not enough time for mercury to accumulate in the plants before they are turned into TU-NAH, which offers valuable marine nutrients such as omega-3 fatty acids, without the toxins. By incorporating sustainable seafood choices like seaweed into our diets, we can take a decisive step towards a healthier future for both ourselves and our planet. 🌍 #alternativeseafood #regenerativeagriculture #seaweed #altprotein #sdg14 #sustainability #plantbased #futureoffood

BettaF!sh x L’Osteria: That’s Amore! 🍕 💚 On Monday we posted about our foray into contract #catering, however that is not all we’ve been up to in the world of #foodservice. One of the very first to join the seaweed movement was FR L'Osteria SE. We partnered with them back in 2022 because they had a problem: L’Osteria wanted to offer more variety to their guests and broaden their plant-based menu, so it made sense to offer an alternative to one of the best-sellers: the pizza tonno. 🐟 However, the team could not find a plant-based tuna alternative that was both tasty and could withstand the 400°C heat required by their traditional pizza ovens. 🔥 That’s why our product team developed and optimized our TU-NAH with L'Osteria's specific challenges in mind. It had to be easy to distribute by hand onto a pizza and heat-resistant up to 400°C without losing taste or texture. No other tuna alternative had been able to achieve this yet. 🫢 Since launching together in January 2023, L’Osteria has sold over 21,000 TU-NAH dishes and made tremendous impact to preserve our oceans. 🌊 📩 Do you want to be next? Get in touch with us at foodservice@bettafish.co #systemgastronomy #foodservice #seaweed #plantbased #partnership #launch

A few weeks ago we were invited to exhibit at Klüh Catering GmbH’s annual Interactive Marketplace, where all their canteen operators from all over Germany gathered to taste their way through a series of innovations selected over the last year, including TU-NAH. 💡 🐟 Sarah Decoine and Thorsten Behnk went to exhibit and were amazed by the receptiveness of the operators to the product and the overwhelmingly positive feedback. 🧑🏻🍳 We are now embarking on a long-term partnship with Klüh to drive the plant-based topic forward - beyond sausage and cheese alternatives - and bring more sustainable, creative and tasty dishes to millions of workers, carehome residents, hospital patients and students all over Germany. 🍽️ Thank you for the opportunity Thorsten Greth, André Jenczewski, Steven Kuppe, Christoph Mateschka (And thank you to our exhibition friends Planet V – Bio Manufaktur and PLANT B) https://lnkd.in/e4YKY4mK #foodservice #partnership #plantbased #seaweed #regenerativeagriculture #planetaryhealth #futurefood #nachhaltigkeit

On Tuesday, Sarah Decoine had the pleasure of speaking on a panel entitled “Die Zukunft nachhaltiger Ernährung in Städten” as part of the program for BERLIN DESIGN WEEK at BE-U Behrens-Ufer. Together with Monika Schreiner, Tim Fronzek, Natalie Maria Tacke, Joern Gutowski and Lidia Fabian, the group discussed how nutritional trends will develop in urban areas in the future and what role sustainability aspects will play in this. Their key insights were: 🌿 1. When it comes to plant-based, we cannot wait for cultural or generational change (considering our climate targets). We also cannot expect fast change from traditional agriculture, who are reliant on seasons, annual harvests, etc. 2. There needs to be a drastic increase in product quality of alternatives in order to make them mainstream and the areas identified for immediate action were: ⚡ 1. Facilitate dialogue and cooperation between corporates and startups 2. Integrate scientists and politicians into discussions at an earlier stage to avoid this "bottleneck" like we have with novel foods regulations in Europe Thank you to Lisa-Marie Kuhn, Natalie Maria Tacke and team for the seamless organization and giving us the oppor-TU-NAH-ty to talk about what we are working on and get our TU-NAH in front of a impact-hungry crowd. 🥪 #foodlabs #beu #innovationlabs #futurefoods #paneltalk #bettafish #altseafood #regenerativeagriculture

LAUNCH NEWS! TU-NAH is now live at knuspr.de 🚀 Following the announcement of our launch at REWE Central & "voll pflanzlich", we are delighted to announce that TU-NAH Spreads and our TU-NAH Can are now available from online grocery retailer knuspr.de in Berlin with hopefully more cities to follow soon. We are especially happy to onboard knuspr as a new partner because they have an amazing plant-based range, with over 5,000 vegan products. 🌱 So what are you waiting for? Order now via the link in comments 📒 Congrats to Lilith Gawol and Sydney Colombani for getting this partnership off the ground and we look forward to the continued expansion together 🙏🏻 #seaweed #productlaunch #plantbased #vegan #regenerativeagriculture #altseafood #futureoffood