Ecolabelling of Seafood: The Basic Concepts - SEAFOOD Ecolabelling: Principles and Practice - page 26

The Blue Angel is a very specific economic incentive tool. . . . The Blue Angel
tries to maintain a balance between ambition and high visibility. It follows a rather
pragmatic approach that assumes, on the one hand, that too ambitious criteria may
lead to useless paperwork because no manufacturer will be able to apply and start
the competitive process. On the other hand, it avoids setting criteria that are too
weak, thereby perhaps increasing visibility but diminishing the economic value of
the instrument over the longer term (Muller 2002).

The few analyses of environmental impact of the Blue Angel show a mixed
set of successes. Some issues addressed by the Blue Angel programme (drink
bottle recycling, adoption of chlorofluorocarbon-free sprays) have apparently been
failures, while others (recycled paper, low noise-emission construction machinery)
appear to have been successes, in the sense of influencing the uptake of the improved
environmental practices (Muller 2002). Beyond this, there have been no assessments
of whether the uptake of the ecolabel and its market popularity has translated
into substantive contributions to improved environmental conditions. Overall, the
Blue Angel is clearly a market success, although the environmental improvements
achieved through the medium of the ecolabel appear to have been, at best, mixed.
As the concept of seafood ecolabelling matures, the lessons of the 25-year-old
Blue Angel programme will become much more important for consumers, pro-
ducers and resellers alike. Lessons of particular relevance to seafood ecolabelling
include how the Blue Angel sets and reviews the environmental performance stan-
dards and how it has interacted with other policy instruments (both regulatory
and voluntary) in Europe to maintain a strong relevance and market appeal (see
Chapter 21).

1.7.2 Uptake by business

In 2006 and 2007, the MSC certification and ecolabelling programme has been
recognised, after a decade of efforts, as finally reaching (and possibly passing
over) the 'tipping point'. This refers to the point where the market demand for
ecolabelled seafood product is great enough to convince enough producers and
resellers to join the programme, and the inertia of securing enough ecolabelled
products to offer to consumers has been simultaneously overcome. Key to achiev-
ing this is the acceptance by major markets and business sectors of both the con-
cept of seafood ecolabelling and certification as well as the competitive value
of having such product lines available for consumers. Apart from the progres-
sive entrance of major European players (such as Tesco, Sainsbury's and Ahold;
Box 1.1), the major change in the business environment has been the commit-
ment by Wal-Mart in the US to purchase certified and ecolabelled seafood. With
this came a following raft of resellers and supplier commitments to certified
and ecolabelled seafood in the race to ensure market parity or even advantage
(Box 1.4).