Transparency and traceability –The need for a level playing field
Challenges, shortfalls and opportunities within the seafood industry
On May 9th 2019, in the context of the Seafood Expo Global taking place in Brussels, WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) organized an exclusive Breakfast Reception in the Atomium with Seafood Experts, Seafood Corporates as well as representatives of the European Commission.
Overall, the event aimed at a common understanding of the importance of traceability and transparency along the seafood supply chain in order to:
- Showcase the benefits of legal, traceable and sustainable seafood and present best practice examples to motivate the corporate sector to source sustainable and traceable seafood products.
- Promote policies and guidelines supporting legal, sustainable and responsible production of seafood and emphasize the risks that threaten the health of fish stocks and the livelihoods of people depending on fish and the possibility of human rights abuses and horrific working conditions.
- Present already existing tools and technologies to implement traceability.
Find here the main statements of our speakers:
Francesca Arena (DG MARE, Fisheries Control and Inspections):
“Future legislation on traceability of fishery products will hopefully contribute to improve traceability including electronic transmission of data, tackling current exemptions and better links between landings and lots.”
Marcel Kroese (WWF Tuna Lead):
“Sustainability and Traceability are not interchangeable. We need to insist on traceability only from sustainable stocks, because it reduces the risk of IUU to enter the markets and contributes to sustainability and to better information on fish stocks.”
Luciano Pirovano (Bolton Food):
“Traceability is a fundamental tool to guarantee not only the products’ quality and safety, but also their sustainability, which is a never ending journey we are facing with the ambition of remaining a model for the industry in the years to come.”
Steve Trent (Environmental Justice Foundation):
“To increase transparency on our oceans, simple and low-cost changes to the architecture of fisheries regimes are needed. Such changes are within reach for all countries today. Crucially, seafood producers, processors and retailers can actively support these measures, joining NGOs to advocate for them, and adopting key elements within their supply chains. Collective action in and between nations and across businesses in the seafood sector could quickly and efficiently deliver fundamental advances in eradicating illegal and unsustainable fishing and combatting human rights abuses in the sector.”
Nigel Edwards (Seachill/Hilton - Tesco's largest own label food supplier)
“The traceability landscape is fast developing. We are open to invest behind the best solutions available as long as they are interoperable and simple to operate for our suppliers. Commitments to transparency and open reporting drive collaboration which is essential to deliver effective advocacy.”
Jo-anne McCrea (WWF Australia) & Markus Mutz (OpenSC):
“Biodiversity loss and human rights abuses are undermining the health of the planet and the health of food industries - we need to act now to incentivise good production and reveal poor operators by implementing available technology to verify, trace and share sustainability claims.”
Tobias Fuglsang (WWF Denmark) & Juliette Alemany (Verifik8):
„Sustainability analytics and verification technology can be a key to incentivize improvement and certification among smallholders shrimp farmers, but we need downstream commitments to support smallholders and facilitate their transition towards responsible production.”
Nathan Droesch (WWF Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability):
“Without traceability in the seafood industry there can’t be sustainability. GDST is bridging the gap between diverse traceability systems by offering the industry a platform to align on the building blocks of traceability.”
