Feed companies part of new fishing alliance

The initiative made up by eight of the world’s largest seafood companies and called “Seafood Business Ocean Stewardship” will clear-out IUU fisheries and inhumane working conditions.

Companies who attended and signed the statement are:

• Maruha Nichiro Corporation

• Nippon Suisan Kaisha, Ltd

• Thai Union Group

• Marine Harvest ASA

• Dongwon Industries

• Nutreco (owner of Skretting)

• Cargill Aqua Nutrition

• Cermaq (subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation)

The eight companies came together to reduce the global extent of illegal, unregulated and unreported fisheries. They will also address shortcomings in reporting and documentation of the value chain in order to prevent illegal fishing and forced labour linked to the sector.

Increase food production from the sea

“Increasingly more people look to the sea for solutions to the global food and climate challenges facing the world community. Only by strengthening our global partnership, we will find good solutions for sustainability that can increase food production from the sea, says Einar Wathne, president of Cargill Aqua Nutrition and Chairman of Norwegian Centre of Expertise, The Seafood Innovation Cluster.

Knut Nesse, CEO of Nutreco said: “I believe this represents a good start to something which can become important in improving the sustainability of seafood. First and foremost because it is a real global initiative. Secondly, and equally important, it links the challenges in wild fisheries and aquaculture. I look forward to translate our joint commitment into concrete actions.”

Gathering keystone actors

The new initiative comes as a result of research conducted by the Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC) at Stockholm University. In 2015, the centre identified the 13 biggest companies that largely controls the global seafood market, whether it’s about aquaculture or fisheries. The research gave rise to the idea of gathering these keystone actors in the seafood industry to create unified transformation of the seafood industry. A meeting between the companies in November 2016 has now resulted in the initiative Seafood Business Ocean Stewardship. Companies will follow up efforts in 2017 with discussions on specific measures to be taken.

Source: Nutreco