Digital Platforms as a Pathway for Driving Investment into Small-Scale Fishing Cooperatives and the Blue Economy in Latin America

Stuart Fulton’s report examines how digital platforms can connect small-scale fishing cooperatives to investment in the Blue Economy, focusing on Mexico as a case study. It shows that while these cooperatives are environmentally sustainable and socially embedded, they face a structural “formality gap”—lacking the financial records, credit history, and administrative infrastructure required by investors. At the same time, investment models are misaligned: due diligence costs are too high relative to small capital needs, and return expectations often conflict with ecological limits. The paper argues that cooperative digital platforms—such as PescaData—can bridge this gap by generating standardized data, enabling portfolio aggregation, and preserving data sovereignty through distributed architectures. Ultimately, it reframes investment at the ecosystem level rather than the firm level.

Cite:
Fulton, Stuart. Digital Platforms as a Pathway for Driving Investment into Small-Scale Fishing Cooperatives and the Blue Economy in Latin America. New York: Institute for the Cooperative Digital Economy, 2026.

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