Saving Seafood

Trident, High Liner, Sysco cut ties with Chinese companies tied to North Korean labor

February 27, 2024 — Trident Seafoods, High Liner Foods, and Sysco are among the U.S. seafood firms that have suspended relationships with Chinese processors named in the latest Outlaw Ocean Project report, which revealed their use of North Korean labor, in violation of U.N. sanctions and U.S. law.

The use of North Korean laborers was prohibited in 2017 by the United Nations Security Council in response to the country testing a series of nuclear and ballistic weapons, and the U.S. has also passed a law categorizing the use of North Korean labor as forced labor unless credibly proven otherwise. Despite that, Outlaw Ocean estimates more than 120,000 metric tons (MT) of seafood have been shipped from companies using North Korean laborers to American importers since 2017.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

High Liner struggles in Q1 as pandemic seafood-buying surge wanes

May 18, 2021 — Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada-based High Liner Foods reported weaker sales and profits in the first quarter of 2021, while acknowledging “global supply challenges.”

The value-added seafood company recorded USD 243.4 million (EUR 199 million) in sales in Q1 2021, down USD 25.2 million (EUR 20.6 million) from Q1 2020. By volume, the company’s sales decreased by 7.5 million pounds to 69.8 million pounds. Its gross profit shrunk by USD 1.1 million (EUR 900,000) to USD 57.7 million (EUR 47.2 million) and its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) declined by USD 2.9 million (EUR 2.4 million) to USD 27.8 million (EUR 22.7 million).

Read the full story at Seafood Source

US aquaculture lobbying group urges Biden to prioritize local seafood production

January 29, 2021 — Stronger America Through Seafood (SATS), a trade group has emerged to promote aquaculture in the United States, has sent a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden, asking that his administration prioritize domestic seafood production.

Specifically, the group has asked that aquaculture be included as part Biden’s oceans and climate policies “as a means to build back a stronger, more resilient America.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Industry must innovate to capture new consumers, High Liner’s Craig Murray says

August 19, 2020 — This moment is a timely opportunity for the seafood industry as a whole, and the wild Alaskan pollock sector in particular, to increase market share and popularity, according to Senior Vice President of Marketing, Innovation, and Quality at High Liner Foods Craig Murray.

Speaking as part of the Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers’ summer webinar series, Murray said the coronavirus pandemic has led a whole new crop of consumers to try new seafood products for the first time.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

High Liner Foods joins Ocean Disclosure Project

February 11, 2020 — The following was released by the Ocean Disclosure Project:

Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) is pleased to announce that High Liner Foods is now participating in the Ocean Disclosure Project (ODP) and is the first North American company to disclose farmed seafood sourcing information in the ODP’s 2019 annual reporting.

“SFP is excited to see High Liner Foods, one of our longest-standing partners, further seafood transparency and continue to demonstrate responsible sourcing through participation in the Ocean Disclosure Project,” said Sam Grimley, deputy director of the Programs Division at SFP.

SFP started the ODP in 2015 to provide a valuable information resource for responsible investors, seafood consumers, and others interested in sustainable seafood. To date, 23 other companies in Europe, North America, and Australia have participated.

“Partnering with SFP since 2010, High Liner Foods is pleased to participate in the ODP as part of our continued commitment to sustainability, responsibility, and transparency,” said Bill Dimento, vice president for corporate sustainability and government affairs at High Liner Foods. “We are proud to be the first North American company to disclose farmed seafood sourcing information in the ODP’s annual report and of the role High Liner Foods continues to play in driving global improvements in wild fisheries and aquaculture, ultimately leading to sustainable seafood for all to enjoy.”

High Liner Foods’ long-standing commitment to sustainable seafood sourcing has included participated and coordination of several key sustainability projects over the years, including a whitefish fishery improvement project (FIP) in the Barents Sea that resulted in dramatic improvements in stock levels.

High Liner Foods’ full profile can be viewed at: https://www.oceandisclosureproject.org/companies/high-liner

Word of Gloucester Seafood Processing reopening catches city leaders by surprise

April 3, 2018 — The comments last week by the founder of the Mazzetta Company that the seafood processor will resume processing fresh fish at its largely dormant Gloucester Seafood Processing plant caught many by surprise — including city officials.

Tom Mazzetta, the chief executive officer of the Illinois-based seafood conglomerate that bears his family’s name, told a respected fishing website that the Gloucester Seafood Processing plant in the Blackburn Industrial Park will resume operations before the year is out.

“We’ll be processing the finest fish in New England before the end of the year,” Mazzetta was quoted as saying in the Undercurrentnews.com piece.

On Monday morning, Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken said the city has not heard a peep from anyone at the Mazzetta Company about re-firing daily operations at Gloucester Seafood Processing which the company unexpectedly — and without explanation — shuttered in December 2016, a little more than a year after it first opened.

“We haven’t heard a word, not from anyone in Illinois or from anyone associated with the plant here,” Romeo Theken said during an event Monday with NOAA Regional Administrator Mike Pentony at the city’s alewife fishway in West Gloucester.

According to the online story posted late last week, Mazzetta declined to expand on the company’s plans beyond his simple statement.

He wouldn’t say if Gloucester Seafood Processing also would be processing lobsters, as it did when it first opened in 2015, or what the size and composition of the new work force will be following the re-opening.

He didn’t reveal whether the property at 21-29 Great Republic Drive, which was listed online for sale last December (with an asking price of $17 million) will be coming off the market. He also refused to shed any light on why Gloucester Seafood Processing was closed in the first place.

Mazzetta did not respond Monday to phone calls from the Gloucester Daily Times seeking clarification and amplification on his comments to the website.

Mazzetta, with the assistance of city and state tax sweeteners, bought the former Good Harbor Fillet property in the industrial park for about $5 million in 2014 from High Liner Foods.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

GSSI’s Accomplishments, Challenges Take Center Stage at SeaWeb Seafood Summit Panel

SEATTLE (Saving Seafood) – June 7, 2017 – The Global Seafood Sustainability Initiative (GSSI) was established in 2013 as a collective, non-competitive approach for industry, NGOs, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and government agencies to address growing confusion in the seafood certification landscape. Over the last four years, they have achieved considerable success in addressing this goal.

At Tuesday’s SeaWeb Seafood Summit panel, “GSSI – Benchmarking and the Certification Landscape,” members of the GSSI Steering Board (Bill DiMento, High Liner Foods; Lesley Sander, Sodexo; Ron Rogness, American Seafoods; Andrea Weber, METRO AG; and Herman Wisse, GSSI Program Director) shared their perspectives on the initiative’s importance, the extent to which the GSSI has already been recognized, and the GSSI’s future.

The GSSI’s most important achievement is the completion of the Global Benchmark Tool in October 2015. This was designed and implemented through broad participation and consultation; engaging stakeholders, NGOs, scientists, managers, harvesters, seafood suppliers, and consumers; and creating a public/private partnership with FAO. Through this unique relationship with FAO, the Benchmarking Tool has been developed in close conformance to the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries.

Success to date can be measured in two ways: use of the Benchmarking Tool to recognize existing certification schemes, and adoption of the GSSI standard by producers, processors, suppliers, and consumers. Three certification schemes have already successfully completed the benchmarking process: the Marine Stewardship Council, Alaska Responsible Fisheries Management (RFM), and Iceland RFM. Additionally, two aquaculture certification schemes are currently being benchmarked. Thus, use of the Benchmarking Tool is already demonstrating noteworthy success.

Adoption and recognition of the GSSI standard is also showing considerable success. Large and small organizations in all sectors are joining the initiative with an increasing number of substantive commitments to source seafood under the GSSI hallmark. The recently announced commitment by the organizers of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to endorse the GSSI standard for seafood served during the games is a significant endorsement.

The panel session was very well attended, as panelists communicated the GSSI concept, the remarkable amount of work that has been done to develop and implement the Benchmarking Tool, and its successful application. Panelists also shared their enthusiasm for GSSI, and the potential for GSSI to promote more sustainable seafood across the industry.

SFP initiative aims for 75 percent sustainable seafood globally

June 6, 2017 — The Sustainable Fisheries Partnership announced on Monday, 5 June at the SeaWeb Seafood Summit in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A., the launch of an initiative aimed achieving the goal of seeing 75 percent of the world’s seafood sourced sustainably or improving toward sustainability by 2020.

At its launch announcement at the summit, SFP, a nonprofit dedicated reducing the environmental and social impacts of fishing and fish farming , called on the seafood industry at large to consider industry-based improvement projects and similar pre-competitive collaborations to help achieve the goal.

“Although the objectives of Target 75 may seem ambitious, our initiative is only calling for our partners and their suppliers to continue with activities that are already underway, and for some others to get on board,” SFP said in its launch statement. “If companies are prepared to assess their supply chains, identify the fisheries and aquaculture regions that need improving, and mobilize their suppliers to launch fishery and aquaculture improvement projects (FIPs and AIPs), it will be possible to meet the target.

Bill DiMento, High Liner Foods’ Vice President of Quality Assurance, Sustainability initiatives, and Government Affairs said his company “loves the goal and will support the effort.”

“Setting goals like this is certainly ambitious but it’s needed to set the pace for the rest of the world,” he said.

SFP said it would use either Marine Stewardship Council certification or a “Green” rating from the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program to define a fishery as “sustainable.” To be defined as “improving,” a fishery must have a grade of “C” or higher as ranked by SFP’s FIP evaluation tool.

“Our two programs are complementary,” Brian Perkins, the North American regional director of the Marine Stewardship Council, said at the SeaWeb press conference. “We have same goal in mind, which is 100 percent sustainable fisheries worldwide. And at MSC, our goal is 20 percent of world fisheries engaged in our by 2020. If we both charge at the goals, we might actually get there.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source 

Portsmouth seafood supplier: Double inspection is bad for business, health

June 7, 2016 — PORTSMOUTH, NH — Officials at High Liner Foods in Portsmouth say that a duplicative inspection program for catfish is hindering their growth.

Traditionally, the Food and Drug Administration was tasked with oversight of all fish. But a provision included in the 2008 Farm Bill removed FDA oversight of catfish, and transferred inspection responsibilities to the Food Safety and Inspection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Now, companies such as High Liner are subject to redundant regulations and duplicate inspection activities, they say.

CEO Keith Decker says the provision is not only bad for business, it is bad for the health of Americans, who eat less than half of the recommended amount of seafood.

“We have to figure out a way to be able to more than double seafood consumption, so we hope through our work, and the support of our senators, we can continue to eliminate these efforts to block seafood consumption through trade protectionism, etc., so we can continue to expand our work,” Decker said.

Decker said because of the current inspection process, he has to have a separate inspector in all of their facilities.

U.S. Sens. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., toured the company Monday morning, learning about its products, and speaking with employees about the recent passage of a Resolution of Disapproval that would block the USDA program.

Read the full story at the New Hampshire Union Leader