SEAFOODNEWS.COM by John Sackton May 15 2015 — Following the rejection by the Alaska Seafood Processors of six major salmon companies joining their client group so as to sell MSC certified salmon this season, the processors made an emergency appeal to the MSC Board.
The MSC Board held reportedly a meeting by telephone Thursday, but as yet has not announced a decision.
This afternoon, the processors applying for client group membership (Alaska General Seafoods, Icicle Seafoods, Kwikpak Fisheries, Leader Creek Fisheries, North Pacific Seafoods, Ocean Beauty, Peter Pan Seafoods, Trident Seafoods) responded to the release of the letter from ASPA (Alaska Seafood Processors Association), refusing to address their request to join the client group.
In addition to the six companies who were rejected, there appear to be at least ten other companies, including smaller processors located in rural Alaskan villages, who have also been refused any answer on their request to join. Under US anti-trust law, the existing client group and its member companies are vulnerable to illegal restraint of trade actions, anti-trust or potentially even racketeering charges, should they agree to accept some companies but not offer others equal access.
Stefanie Mooreland, Director of Government Relations and Sustainability for Trident, offered the following response for the group:
“When we initially approached ASPA for their advice on how to proceed with our interest in joining the existing MSC certificate for Alaska salmon, they recommended after some discussion that we start the process by formally requesting to join the ASPA through a simple email. That request was sent on April 7th.
The MSC program includes two certificate sharing requirements: (1) fishery clients must prepare and publish a statement on certificate sharing and (2) facilitation of good faith efforts on both sides to enter into a certificate sharing agreement within 30 days of a request to share the certificate. Based upon these two requirements, we believed meaningful negotiation towards a cost sharing arrangement as described in the certificate sharing statement for the fishery would have been required by the end of last week, within 30 days of our request to enter the client group.
When the group of Alaska processors applied to join ASPA on April 7th, the published statement on certificate sharing for Alaska salmon required only a sharing of costs.
Instead of entering discussions toward an appropriate costs sharing formula, as MSC requires, ASPA sent the applicant group a letter on May 12th. Thus, more than a month had passed with no discussion of cost sharing.
The denial appears to be largely based on the client group’s dislike of the applicants and the actions cited in the letter. If no additional immediate action is taken for 2015, members of the current client group will enjoy exclusive access to the MSC certificate for Alaska salmon this year; a certificate 75 percent funded by an MSC program grant and supported by the State of Alaska salmon research and management programs.
The ASPA response denying requests to join the client group does not acknowledge MSC requirements on certificate sharing or their own terms of the certificate sharing statement that was publicly posted at the time of requests to enter.
In arriving at their decision to deny entry, ASPA seems to place much emphasis on companies’ earlier action to withdraw from the MSC program; though ASPA previously allowed many companies to join their group who also withdrew from the MSC program for salmon in 2012, just as the rejected companies did.
In fact, in August, 2013, Scott Blake, CEO of Copper River Seafoods and a current member of the ASPA, put out a statement saying they were abandoning their MSC chain of custody and client status effective Jan 1, 2014.
“Sustainability certification has helped to raise consumer awareness for the fisheries improvements that are being made globally. However, it has also caused issues for model fisheries like Alaska by preventing market access for companies that choose to support state and federal fisheries management rather than paying to participate in an approved certification scheme”, said Blake, according to SeafoodNews reports at the time.
However, the ASPA had no objection to Copper River rejoining the client group, despite their very public prior withdrawal from the MSC program.
Because of these egregious violations of the trust put in a client group through allowing them to hold a fisheries certification, “the group has therefore asked the MSC Board of Trustees to intervene by enforcing the MSC’s program requirements that promote inclusion”, said Moreland.
“Alaska producers that were denied access to the client group this week request that the MSC Board take action to add all interested and eligible fishery participants to the Alaska salmon MSC fishery certificate for 2015. Requestors would compensate current client group members for all associated costs they’ve incurred in order to meet terms of the salmon certificate statement on certificate and cost sharing. It’s our understanding the MSC Board met this week, and we are awaiting their decision.”
This story originally appeared on Seafood.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.