Open Ocean Trading and Aikido Bay Form Strategic Partnership To Support Lobster Industry

BOSTON - July 2, 2014 - PRLog -- Boston, MA (July 1, 2014) -- Open Ocean Trading and Aikido Bay announced today a strategic partnership in an effort to create a better method for establishing prices for American lobster. The partnership aims to provide transparency and stability in the marketplace for this product through open and competitive transactions. Both companies share a long standing commitment to New England and Eastern Canada for the overall balance between economic and environmental sustainability in the lobster industry. The natural partnership will facilitate transparency and communication between buyers and sellers, with the direct result of improving quality, risk, and logistics management throughout the supply chain.

“Auctions and forward markets share a common overlap in price discovery,” Keith Flett the CEO and Founder of Open Ocean Trading commented. “It was only a matter of time until we merged our ideas and overall enthusiasm to create major change in this industry.”   Kevin Murphy, CEO and Co-Founder of Aikido Bay added, “This strategic partnership will broaden the marketplace and ensure stable margins for both buyers and sellers. We are excited that our teams can work together going forward, and will continue to deliver on our promises of transparency, anonymity and traceability.”

The partnership intends to combine technology platforms, clients and resources between the two companies, and was successfully piloted in the second quarter of 2014. Through these efforts, the two companies unlock access and provide price discovery for the lobster fishery across two countries, five provinces and five states. Jean Lavallee, lobster expert and Principal Consultant and Founder of Aquatic Science and Health Services noted, "We all know how fragmented the lobster industry is in North America.  I see a lot of potential in this partnership to better unify some of the segments of the chain-of-custody.  I also see great opportunities to implement consistent and standardized quality practices and grading to help reduce shrinkage and price fluctuation."

Through the standardization of logistics and by working with current industry relationships, Open Ocean Trading and Aikido Bay plan to stabilize the ongoing gluts and droughts of harvest while maintaining stability in pricing. “It is crazy that in 2014 menus still read ‘market price’ for lobster. Something is not right when a restaurant pays up to $48 per pound for quality lobster ” said Bryan Szeliga ex-chef and Director of Business Development for Open Ocean Trading, “Just think of the possibilities for new markets and sales growth in restaurants and retailers by simply stabilizing the price of lobster.”

“The goals are lofty, but achievable,” Keith commented. “The only thing holding this industry back from major advancement is the people who currently make money off the inefficiencies we are correcting. It will take some time, but that is why we need to start now.”

The two companies are currently wrapping up the Canadian season and have a handful of ports online in Maine. For more information or to become active in their markets feel free to contact info@openoceantrading.com or kevinm@aikidobay.com.

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Open Ocean Trading (http://www.openoceantrading.com/index.html) is a marketplace that allows buyers and sellers to trade commercially harvested and farmed seafood products in forward time. Forward contracts remove variability in an inherently uncertain and volatile seafood industry and enable stable and fair pricing for all parties. The online platform, FYSH-X, allows buyers and sellers to directly and anonymously negotiate in a secure environment to know in advance what their product is worth and provide transparency. OOT primarily works with day-boat fisherman to provide buyers with fresher high quality fish that reaches market faster than traditional distribution methods.

Aikido Bay (http://www.aikidobay.com/) is an online real-time auction and marketplace that anonymously connects buyers and sellers of Maine and Canadian lobsters throughout the world in real time. By directly connecting buyers and sellers, Aikido Bay improves margins and opens up new opportunities for business relationships and geographic markets. The proprietary online services available to registered users at http://www.lobsterportal.com include detailed lot information, pricing reports, quality assessments, traceability, and insured payments.  Aikido Bay’s focus is on the wholesale lobster marketplace and plans to roll out a platform for all seafood species in late 2014.