Our commitment to seafood sustainability
Cape Town, South Africa, 2015-10-12 — /EPR Retail News/ — As one of the largest retailers and a significant role player in the South African seafood industry, Pick n Pay supports positive change in fisheries and aquaculture operations.
We were the first retailer in African to commit to transforming our fresh, frozen and canned seafood operations to ensure that from 2016, we will only sell products which meet one of our seafood sustainability criteria (Figure 1):
- Certified as being sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) for wild-capture products or the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC; or equivalent standards) for aquaculture products; or
- Categorised as ‘Green’ by WWF-SA’s Southern African Sustainable Seafood Initiative (WWF-SASSI); or
- Engaged in a credible, time-bound Fisheries or Aquaculture Project, which are identified on a case-by-case basis and developed in partnership with WWF-SA in the context of their WWF-SASSI Retailer/Supplier Participation Scheme .
We recognise that a significant proportion of the world’s fisheries and aquaculture facilities do not currently meet internationally accepted standards of sustainability or certification. Therefore, in addition to aiming to increase the variety and availability of sustainable seafood for our customers, we seek to use our buying power as an incentive and a clear pathway for fisheries and aquaculture operations to become sustainable through our support of improvement projects.
For our stakeholders, suppliers and buyers, we have developed the following guidelines which clarify which projects qualify as Fisheries Projects (FPs) and Aquaculture Projects (APs) that we will support.
FISHERY PROJECTS:
Pick n Pay defines Fishery Projects (FPs) as:
- Projects with the specific goal of enabling a fishery (local or international) to reach the necessary sustainability standards to enter full assessment by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC); or
- Locally developed projects which focus primarily on the improvement in the environmental performance of a fishery using WWF-SASSI assessments of the relevant seafood species as the primary measure; or
- Procurement strategies , specifically developed to incentivise improvement in the source fisheries for groups of species that do not meet PnP’s sustainability criteria.
For further details on the Pick n Pay commitments to sustainable seafood and the implementation strategy that we have developed to ensure that we meet our goals, please see www.picknpay.co.za/distribution.
AQUACULTURE PROJECTS:
Pick n Pay defines Aquaculture Projects (APs) as:
- Projects with the specific goal of enabling an aquaculture operation (local or international) to reach the necessary sustainability standards to enter full assessment by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC; or equivalent standard), or
- Locally developed projects which focus primarily on the improvement in the environmental performance of the operations using WWF-SASSI assessments of the relevant seafood species as the primary measure; or
- Procurement strategies2, specifically developed to incentivise improvement in a range of source aquaculture operations for groups of species that do not meet PnP’s sustainability criteria.
FPs AND APs MUST HAVE THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERISTICS TO BE RECOGNISED BY PICK N PAY:
- A work plan with measureable indicators and milestones along a defined timeline;
- A system for tracking and reporting progress against the indicators in the work plan;
- Documented willingness from participants to make improvements (e.g. signed memorandum of understanding, correspondence/contract between parties stating a commitment, letter of support or intent, etc.);
- Documented willingness from participants to make investments required to achieve improvements as outlined in the work plan, including clear roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders;
- A pre-defined maximum timespan where relevant e.g. 5 years to start MSC/ASC full assessment;
- Regular review of progress and transparency of the review-results, to be conducted at least annually; and
- Agreed communication activities between the parties involved with the minimum requirement being that the scope of the project, workplan and annual progress reports are publically available.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
- Pick n Pay considers MSC certification as the ‘gold standard’ of wild-capture fisheries certification schemes as it is consistent with the United Nations best practice guidelines for ecolabelling and certification.
- Pick n Pay recognises ASC certification as the ‘gold standard’ for responsible aquaculture as it is a full member of the ISEAL Alliance and is in compliance with ISEAL’s Standard-Setting Code.
- Pick n Pay will continue to support and communicate about progress in existing FPs and APs, conditional upon the source fishery and aquaculture operations reaching certain standards and milestones within agreed timelines, with the relevant parties involved.
Current procurement strategies for PnP include Linefish, Tuna and Slamon from wild-capture fisheries, and Prawns and Salmon from aquaculture operations.
CONTACT US
For more information or to support our FPs and APs, please contact us on sustainableliving@pnp.co.za.