Ecolabelling of Seafood: The Basic Concepts - SEAFOOD Ecolabelling: Principles and Practice - page 27

Box 1.4 The US Seafood Business Magazine
The seafood industry's leading business magazine from the US, Seafood Busi-
ness , regularly profiles seafood sustainability issues, and recently the lead story
focused on the history and success of the MSC programme in the following
terms:
The MSC's recent success is also due to the growing number of seafood buyers
incorporating sustainability into their purchasing criteria. Merely a trend in the
late 1990s when the MSC was conceived, sustainability is now a full-blown
movement within the seafood industry.
When seafood buyers think green, the MSC is an obvious choice, because
it offers the only program in the world that's fully consistent with the United
Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization's seafood eco-labeling guidelines,
a recognition it attained in September.
'We have no reservations about [the MSC] and believe it truly is the only
worldwide program that addresses the needs of our sustainable-seafood platform',
says Peter Redmond, VP of Wal-Mart's seafood division.
'The MSC is recommended by all sorts of parties, including the WWF, Green-
peace, Environmental Defense [and seafood] suppliers', he adds. 'Therefore, we
know the program is well accepted. The bottom line is that there are no other
organizations out there that offer this sort of a program at this time.'
Besides receiving the FAO's blessing, the MSC's greatest accomplishment
last year was perhaps Wal-Mart's pledge in January to purchase all of its wild
seafood, excluding value-added, branded product, from MSC-certified fisheries
in 3-5 years.
Wal-Mart is prompting other retailers, foodservice operators, suppliers and
fisheries, especially in the Untied States, to seek certification, says Howes [ MSC
CEO ]. The world's largest retailer, with more than 6 600 stores worldwide, is al-
ready selling at least 10 MSC-labeled products, including Alaska salmon, pollock
and surimi seafood and New Zealand hoki.
Costco, Safeway, Wegmans, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's and Target also are
carrying MSC-labeled products. Wal-Mart, Costco and Safeway are among the
nation's five largest food retailers, representing more than $225 billion in annual
food sales.
From Seafood Business , January 2007. 'MSC reaches tipping point', by
Steven Hedlund.
With the very rapid rise in reseller acceptance of certified and ecolabelled seafood
in the last 2 years comes the need to find enough product to supply the demand.
In the short term, the limited supply may create a shortage-driven price increment
favouring the existing producers, but with much less than 10% of the world's wild-
caught fish likely to be certified in the short term, this will generate a marketplace