The Global Seafood Alliance (GSA) and FishChoice have launched a collaborative project intended to address accountability issues in fishery improvement projects.
The program will use GSA’s seafood processing standard (SPS) to support greater supply chain assurance and traceability for FIPs reporting on FisheryProgress.org. GSA’s processing standard evaluates environmental responsibility, social accountability, and food safety for farm-raised and wild-caught seafood processors. The inclusion of traceability components in the certification can provide further assurances to the supply chain when sourcing from fishery improvement projects, GSA CEO Wally Stevens said.
“As GSA continues to engage in the wild seafood space, we’re working with our marketplace partners to identify where our organization can provide the most value,” Stevens said. “It’s exciting to start a project like this with FishChoice where we’ll leverage our longstanding and proven expertise in the auditing of seafood processing facilities to address current gaps in the assurance of credible FIP traceability in the marketplace.”
FishChoice is a platform with a goal of providing accurate, consistent, and credible information about sustainable seafood products on its web-based platform FishChoice.com and on FIPs through its FisheryProgress platform. Using GSA’s SPS, the two platforms will pilot a process to bring clarity and value to wild seafood supply chains currently operating outside of third-party fishery certification programs, according to FishChoice CEO Richard Boot.
“As the most widely traded food commodity in the world, seafood brings a unique set of challenges in traceability and assurance,” Boot said. “Finding practical ways to use technology to address these challenges is essential to continue moving toward an environmentally and socially responsible seafood industry.”
Stevens said a challenge in supporting improvement in small-scale and non-industrial fisheries is balancing innovation and situationally appropriate solutions for communities and fishers with accountability and verification for the supply chain. To address this, GSA intends to develop additional guidance specifically for processors to verify landings from FIPs reporting on FisheryProgress and guidance to auditors on verifying the traceability claims, according to a press release.
Photo courtesy of CLJ Giordano/Shutterstock
