Saving Seafood

Northern Wind and Bristol Seafood Celebrate One Year of Fair Trade Scallops; Give Back to Fishing Communities

March 9, 2018 — The following was released by Northern Wind and Bristol Seafood:

Northern Wind and Bristol Seafood are celebrating one year of selling Fair Trade Certified scallops. A year ago, the two companies came together to form a Fair Trade fishing association called the Northwest Atlantic Sea Scallop Fisheries. As part of their participation in the program, the association commits to reinvest a portion of their Fair Trade profits back into the fishing community. Northwest Atlantic Sea Scallop Fisheries chose to dedicate a portion of the premium of their Fair Trade Certified scallops to the Fisheries Survival Fund (FSF), which represents over 250 full-time scallop fishermen.

FSF works to ensure the long-term health of Atlantic sea scallops and the scallop fishery by partnering with the industry, regulators, and scientists. It promotes sustainable management while helping to make the scallop fishery one of the most valuable in the United States. The Atlantic sea scallop fishery is the first American fishery to be awarded the Fair Trade designation.

“There is increasing demand for sustainably and responsibly harvested seafood, and we are proud to sell scallops with the Fair Trade Certified label,” said Ken Melanson, CEO of Northern Wind. “Seafood buyers need to know that the Atlantic scallop fishery meets the world’s highest standards.”

The program, operated by independent certification group Fair Trade USA, requires fisheries to meet stringent environmental, labor, and social responsibility standards. Certified fisheries must fish stocks that are sustainably managed, provide fair wages and benefits to employees, and maintain safe working conditions.

“Fair Trade certification is a key part of our commitment to promoting economically sustainable communities and environmentally sustainable fisheries,” said Peter Handy, CEO of Bristol Seafood. “Supporting the work of the Fisheries Survival Fund helps us to continue to safeguard the future sustainability of the scallop fishery.”

The Northwest Atlantic Sea Scallop Fisheries vessels participating in the Fair Trade program are the Hear No Evil, Let It Ride, Bountiful 2, Diligence, Sandra Jane, Concordia, Contender, Ambassador, Sea Ranger Vanquish and Vantage. The participating vessels land their Fair Trade scallops at Tempest Fisheries, Ltd. in the Port of New Bedford. 

“We’ve loved working with Bristol Seafood and Northern Wind over the past year,” said Ashley Apel, Senior Seafood Program Manager at Fair Trade USA. “We look forward to continuing to strengthen the livelihoods of fishermen and improve the wellbeing of fishing communities here in the U.S.”

About Northern Wind

Northern Wind is a direct off-loader, processor, and distributor of fresh and frozen scallops, along with additional seafood offerings. Founded in 1987 by Ken Melanson and Michael Fernandes, Northern Wind has since grown to a team of 100 full-time employees and operates a state-of-the art BRC facility on New Bedford’s historic waterfront. Since the very beginning, the Northern Wind Team has always dedicated themselves to consistently supplying customers with high quality products at superior service levels and competitive prices.

About Bristol Seafood

Bristol provides quality seafood to people who care about what they eat. Founded in 1992, the company enjoys a nationwide following due to steadfast adherence to its uncompromising Maine standards. Bristol pairs efficiency-building technologies with finishing done the old-fashioned way – by hand. In 2016, Bristol reported record sales for the second consecutive year, and shipped more than six million pounds of seafood from its facility on the Portland, Maine fish pier. The company is the first and only processor of mussels, scallops, or fillets in the state of Maine to earn a Safe Quality Food Institute certification, and the first company to introduce a Fair Trade certified seafood item harvested in US waters.

 

Seafood joins fair trade revolution, a scallop at a time

April 17, 2017 — Fair trade coffee, bananas and … scallops? Yes, very soon.

Fair trade certification status, which is conferred by independent groups to denote environmental sustainability and fair working conditions, has been around for years. But it’s just now on the rise among seafood products in the U.S., where consumer interest in the story behind the fish and shellfish they eat is growing.

Certification of seafood products, including tuna and shrimp, began in 2014, and the volume of imports of such products grew more than 350 percent last year to more than 1.2 million pounds (500,000 kilograms), said Fair Trade USA, a California-based nonprofit group. The first company to offer fair trade seafood harvested from U.S. waters will have scallops on the market this month.

The company, Bristol Seafood of Portland, Maine, is looking to capitalize on the growing interest in authenticity of seafood, said its president, Peter Handy.

“There’s a certain sanctity to food when it comes to the story about it,” he said. “It tastes better the more you know.”

Independent groups, including Fair Trade USA, provide certifications to a host of products that people buy in stores, ranging from fruit and nuts to home goods. The certification is most commonly associated with coffee, which launched the fair trade movement in the 1990s.

To achieve certification, companies need to submit to an audit and interviews to make sure the food is produced with fair working conditions and environmental stewardship along the supply chain. Packaged products can then bear a “Fair Trade Certified” seal, which carries a price premium.

Fair Trade USA currently certifies shrimp from Mexico, yellowfin tuna from Indonesia, and skipjack and yellowfin tuna from Maldives. It is the only group currently certifying seafood as fair trade, representatives for the nonprofit said.

Interest in the seafood supply chain has grown since an Associated Press investigation of slave labor conditions in Thailand’s shrimp fishery, said Ashley Apel, senior manager of the seafood program for Fair Trade USA. Even before that, a 2014 study by a pair of economists from the University of Kentucky said more than 80 percent of consumers were at least somewhat influenced by labels that tell the story of seafood.

“It was the right place and right time to show that the seafood industry needs a fair trade certification,” Apel said.

The standards for achieving the certification for seafood products focus on management of fish stocks and fishing habitat, as well as the wages and working conditions of the fishermen and others in the supply chain. Steps must be taken to eliminate forced labor and human trafficking, and workers must have the freedom to organize. At the same time, there must be documentation of things like proper waste management and protection of ecosystems, Fair Trade USA’s materials state.

Fair Trade USA is one of a handful of major groups involved in certifying food products, with another prominent one other being Germany-based Fairtrade International.

They’re banking on chefs and restaurants getting excited about the products. Barton Seaver, a chef and author in Freeport, Maine, said fair trade seafood is too new to be familiar to many restaurateurs but is part of seafood’s future.

“It’s currently in its infancy, but I think the products they are working with will quickly prove the model, and the value that it can offer,” he said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Gloucester Times