Food Lover’s Market sustainable seafood progress towards 2016 commitments (wild-caught only) Species Strategies for those species that do not currently meet the Food Lover’s Market commitments to sustainable seafood:
Namibian hake
Food Lovers Market currently procures trawled hake from Namibia and uses it in many of its products. Although this hake is currently on the WWF-SASSI Orange-list and does not meet Food Lovers Market commitments to sustainable seafood, we are proactively engaged with the Namibian Hake Association and they have commenced with MSC certification of their fishery as of April 2017. Food Lovers Market is aware that by staying engaged with this fishery beyond our seafood sustainability target date we can play a role in incentivising the fishery to improve. That being said, the expectation is that now that the Namibian Hake Trawl fishery has entered into the certification process, they should contiually progress towards certification within the given timeframe for each certification step and are fully certified by September 2018.
Linefish
- Geelbek
- Red roman
- Santer
Food Lovers Market currently procure various “linefish” species from the South African Traditional Commercial Linefishery. A number of these species do not currently meet our commitments to sustainable seafood, however, we are working towards the implementation of a procurement strategy for these species to ensure that Food Lovers Market, as well as our suppliers and source Traditional Linefishers, are implementing best available practices in the fishery. This means that we are engaging with our suppliers and source Traditional Linefishers to ensure that all “linefish” we procure is:
- Traceable back to the vessel that caught it and legally harvested, and
- Bought from Traditional Linefishery vessels that have a valid permits, and
- Compliant with permit conditions with regards to species size, season and bag limits, and • Bought from Traditional Linefishery vessels that submit their monthly catch returns to the Department of Agriculture, Forestry & Fisheries, and
- That all relevant suppliers have a Fish Processing permit and are implementing the above with the Traditional Linefishers that they source from.
Full implementation of this strategy will require extensive consultation and collaboration with our suppliers and source Traditional Linefishers. For this reason we will be embarking on series of workshops June 2017 to brief all necessary stakeholders on our “linefish” procurement requirements and to support them in implementation. We aim to have this procurement strategy fully implemented with our suppliers and source Traditional Linefishers by January 2018 and will then continue to work with WWF South Africa on a more comprehensive Fishery Conservation Project aimed to improve the WWF-SASSI status of key “linefish” species in South Africa.
Prawns–(wild-caught)
- Fenneropenaeus indicus
- Litopenaues vannamei
Food Lovers Market currently procures Indian White Shrimp (Fenneropenaeus indicus) caught in the prawn trawl fishery for many of our products. Although prawns are on the WWF-SASSI Orange-list we are implementing a procurement strategy that aligns with the WWF-SASSI procurement guidelines for prawns / shrimp. The particular species that we currently procure does not meet our commitments to sustainable seafood, however, we are working with our suppliers to engage with the source fishery to improve the sustainability of their practices by investigating the feasibility of implementing a credible Fishery Improvement Project in the fishery. Should this process not result in a positive outcome by January 2017 then Fruit & Veg City/ Food Lovers Market will cease procurement of this species and pursue an alternative, sustainable seafood options. Therefore, by January 2017 all Fruit & Veg City/ Food Lovers Market wildcapture prawns will come from source fisheries that meet one of the following criteria: – Are certified by the Marine Stewardship Council, or – Are engaged in a credible Fishery Improvement Project.
Prawns–(Farmed)
- Litopenaues vannamei
Food Lovers Market currently procures farmed White-leg shrimp (Litpenaeus vannamei for many of our products. Although prawns are on the WWF-SASSI Orange-list we are implementing a procurement strategy that aligns with the WWF-SASSI procurement guidelines for prawns / shrimp. The particular species that we currently procure does not meet our commitments to sustainable seafood, however, we are working with our suppliers to engage with the source farms to improve the sustainability of their practices by investigating the feasibility of implementing a credible Aquaculture Improvement Project in the fishery. Should this process not result in a positive outcome by January 2019 then Fruit & Veg City/ Food Lovers Market will cease procurement of this species and pursue an alternative, sustainable seafood options. Therefore, by January 2019 all Food Lovers Market farmed prawns will come from source farms that meet one of the following criteria: – Are certified by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, or – Are engaged in a credible Aquaculture Improvement Project.
Salmon (farmed)
Farmed Atlantic Salmon
Although Food Lovers market currently procures farmed Norwegian Salmon which is on the WWF-SASSI orange-list we are implementing a procurement strategy that aligns with SASSI procurement guideline for Salmon. This means that all Norwegian on Food Lover’s shelves will come from farms that are affiliated to the Global Salmon Initiative (GSI – http://globalsalmoninitiative.org/) by January 2019. These farms have committed to work towards meeting the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) standard for responsible aquaculture by 2020. Food Lover’s has full traceability back to all source farms and is annually tracking progress of these farms towards their 2020 ASC target.
