Anecdotes and Lessons of a Decade - SEAFOOD Ecolabelling: Principles and Practice - page 425

21.5.5 Future business models

The MSC has secured good market penetration for products but has failed to achieve
significant fish stock or ecological benefits because of the following four key weak-
nesses in its overall business model:
the lack of fixed and explicit standards;
the lack of a direct link between the standard and improvements;
the lack of price/cost guidance for assessments; and
limited overview applied from the MSC through its procedures for accreditation
and review of certifiers.

This has led to the situation where the MSC standard is open to interpretation by
the certifier, which is then open to influence from lobby group interests and (poten-
tially) commercial interests. As the MSC programme matures, the current business
model will need to be significantly changed to resolve these weaknesses. Changes
needed include the adoption of a standard that is fixed, explicit and clear, with
measurable criteria for certifiers to use in verification; an increase in the quality
control imposed on certifiers to ensure they use equivalent forms of interpretation of
the MSC standard and achieve comparable outcomes; and establishment of a cost
benchmark for fishery assessments based on the components of pre-assessment,
full assessment and annual compliance audits. These issues apply equally to
all other forms of certification that use a business model similar to that of the
MSC.

21.6 The costs and benefits of pre-assessment

As fisheries and aquaculture ventures explore the prospect of acquiring a certifica-
tion or ecolabel, they consider all the risks to which their operation may become
exposed. This will include (usually) making public and bringing into focus many
things about the venture that have either not previously been exposed or may not
have been considered in detail in a way that may be negative for the business. These
potential risks and 'downsides' have to be evaluated in the context of short- and
long-term benefits that may accrue from a successful acquisition of the certification
or ecolabel. This period of exploration of the idea of becoming certified is known
as the pre-assessment and can involve:

informal discussion and intelligence gathering at industry forums, seafood shows
and technical conferences about experiences with certification of various types;

research on the experiences of industry observers, market analysts and govern-
ment agency officials;

assessing the possible market responses to certification, including new markets
and pricing issues;