Saving Seafood

Tuna fleets to hold crisis meeting as skipjack prices drop to record low

November 8, 2019 — Some of the world’s biggest tuna fishing fleets are set to meet “face to face” next week to discuss the current market crisis.

An oversupply of skipjack tuna has led raw material prices for delivery in Bangkok, Thailand to dive from $1,600 per metric ton in March to $900/t this month, a record low. This has caused many purse seine boats around the world to operate at a loss. Prices are expected to drop even further in the near future -with rumours of some exchanges done at $850/t in recent days- a situation that is seen as unsustainable for most tuna fleets.

The World Tuna Purse Seine Organization (WTPO) will hold a meeting on Nov. 13 in Manila, the Philippines, to discuss the market and catch situations in relation to “concerns” raised by WCPO and Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission members.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Thai fishing group lobbies government to relax reforms, leaving NGOs, retailers, and suppliers troubled

September 19, 2019 — A list of demands from the National Fishing Association of Thailand (NFAT) – shared with Thai government officials in a closed-door meeting – could “derail the reform of the country’s fisheries,” according to the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) and its sources.

NFAT’s demands include lifting all restrictions on crew and catch transfers at sea, as well as being allowed to fish for much longer without the obligation to record exact fishing locations, EJF said. Additionally, the group has called for vessels that lost their licenses in 2015 to be allowed to fish once more, and for the abolishment of annual inspections of vessels and crew. It has also requested that age restrictions on fishing be relaxed, and that operators be given the capability to revise crew lists for many hours after leaving port.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

New film, “Buoyancy,” tackles issue of slavery in Thai seafood industry

August 19, 2019 — An Australian filmmaker is hoping that his debut feature film entitled, “Buoyancy,” will help to raise greater awareness of human trafficking and slavery on Thai fishing vessels.

Rodd Rathjen’s award-winning film highlights the plight of thousands of migrant Cambodian workers trapped in modern slavery in the Thai seafood industry. Shot in Cambodia in the Khmer and Thai languages, the film centers on the plight of an impressionable 14-year old Cambodian boy, who sets out to escape poverty by finding work in a Thai factory, but finds himself sold by a broker and enslaved on a fishing trawler. The result is a harrowing exposition of a reality that remains an issue for the Thai industry, despite ongoing efforts to combat it.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

2019 SeaWeb Seafood Summit wrap-up: Attendees recognize Thailand’s Labor Rights Promotion Network; event organizers look to what’s next

June 14, 2019 — “This is a celebration – not a competition,” said Diversified Communication’s Ned Daly of the Seafood Collaboration Project, which seeks to improve networking and collaboration in seafood and provide a platform for under-represented voices.

On 13 June, the final day of the 2019 SeaWeb Seafood Summit – taking place in Bangkok, Thailand – eight organizations participating in the Seafood Collaboration Project shared their stories with attendees to wrap up the event. Among the participating organizations were Mexico’s Impacto Colectivo para la Pesca y Acuacultura en México, Stella Maris of Thailand, the International Transport Workers Federation of Thailand, the Labor Rights Promotion Network of Thailand, Sailors for the Sea – Japan, Teng Hoi of Hong Kong, Sustainable Fisheries Trade of Peru, and the Asian Seafood Improvement Collaborative (ASIC) of Southeast Asia.

Following presentations from each of the organizations, summit attendees were asked to vote for one to receive a USD 10,000 (EUR 8,871) prize – not in the spirit of contest, but rather to further recognize the amazing, collective work already underway around the world in the name of seafood sustainability, Daly explained.

“We are here to celebrate the people, organizations, partnerships, and collaborations that are driving improvements in ocean resources and seafood supply chains,” he said.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Thailand-based fisheries association threatens protests over IUU rules

June 13, 2019 — The National Fisheries Association of Thailand is threatening protests against the government in the wake of measures by the government to curb illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

According to the Bangkok Post, the association members are threatening to camp out in front of Thailand’s Agriculture Ministry due to rules implemented in the last five years. Those rules partially stemmed from the issuance of a yellow card by the European Union – which was lifted in January – that the country received in 2015 in response to the lack of effective sanctions to prevent IUU fishing.

Those new rules have caused a shortage of workers, forcing operators out of business, association president Mongkol Sukcharoenkhana told the Bangkok Post.

“If these laws aren’t changed, the fishermen will head to Bangkok and camp out in front of the Agriculture Ministry,” he told the paper.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Fair Trade founder heralds the rise of the conscious consumer

June 12, 2019 — The age of the conscious consumer has arrived, much to the delight of Fair Trade USA founder and CEO Paul Rice.

The keynote speaker at this year’s SeaWeb Seafood Summit – taking place in Bangkok, Thailand, from 10 to 14 June – Rice shared some promising news about modern consumer behavior with conference attendees, all of whom have a vested interest in the sustainable seafood movement.

“Consumers are changing the world,” he said. “Their purchasing decisions are both luring more companies into the sustainability space and rewarding those companies that do.”

Shoppers are increasingly opening up their minds and wallets to seafood that appeals to their growing sustainability sensibilities, Rice explained, referencing an impressive leap in sales experienced by one of the certifier’s seafood partners after the supplier introduced Fair Trade scallops to its portfolio.

“One of the companies that we work with in our sustainability program had scallop sales of 3 percent year-over-year growth – they introduced Fair Trade scallops and their sales growth on the scallop line jumped to 38 percent,” Rice said. “Now that’s an extraordinary and probably unusual sales bump as a result of adding the Fair Trade label, but it illustrates the point, which is regardless of what certification it is or what sustainability attribute we add to products, consumers are hungry to reward companies that are doing the right thing and are looking for products that speak to their values.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Four new Seafood Champions crowned in Bangkok, Thailand at SWSS19

June 11, 2019 — The historic number of Seafood Champions grew by four on 11 June, when Diversified Communications and SeaWeb awarded Wakao Hanaoka, OceanMind, Darian McBain, and Francisco Blaha with the prestigious distinction in Bangkok, Thailand during the 2019 SeaWeb Seafood Summit this week.

The winners were chosen from a group of 17 finalists and are each regarded as seafood sustainability leaders committed to creatively and faithfully supporting the movement as it evolves, Diversified said in a press release. They were recognized during a special reception on the evening of Tuesday, 11 June at the Shangri-La Hotel in Bangkok, where the summit is being held from 10 to 15 June.

“Once again the Seafood Champion Awards bring together a collection of inspirational stories that exemplify the great work being done to make seafood more sustainable and more ethical,” Diversified Communications Group Vice President Liz Plizga said. “We want to recognize and thank all our Seafood Champion Awards Finalists for the important work they are doing. The 17 finalists show how companies, governments, non-profits, and individuals are all having a positive impact on seafood across the globe.”

Change and progress are hallmarks of the 2019 Seafood Champion Awards recipients – the winners have been involved with changing how a country perceives sustainable seafood; transforming industry and supply chains; shifting how governments regulate fisheries and enforce the law; and redefining how individuals and communities support and benefit from sustainable fisheries.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

SeaWeb Seafood Summit conference program puts focus on social and human rights challenges

April 26, 2019 — Representatives from Walmart, Anova Food, Thai Union, and North Atlantic/Bali Seafood International will be featured speakers at the 2019 SeaWeb Seafood Summit, which will have a major focus on social and human rights challenges in seafood supply chains.

The summit, taking place 10 to 14 June in Bangkok, Thailand, will involve many of the leading voices in the seafood sustainability movement in Asia and globally. Companies taking part in the event will discuss ways they’ve created stronger relationships with supply chain partners and workers, reduced their exposure to risk, and produced a better product to sell through the adoption of sustainability measures in their respective businesses.

The conference’s keynote speaker will be Fair Trade USA CEO Paul Rice, an advocate of “impact sourcing” as a core strategy for both poverty alleviation and sustainable business. Rice is the author of “The Human Face of Sustainability: Empowering Fishers, Farmers, and Workers.” Rice will also serve on a panel with Richard Welford, the founder and chairman of CSR Asia, Walmart Senior Buying Manager Trevyr Lester, and Sarah Hogan, the program officer for the Packard Foundation’s Global Seafood Markets strategy, to discuss successful examples from seafood and other industries of sustainable supply chains. The panelists will share their experiences in using market forces to drive positive impacts on workers, communities, resources, and corporate profits, according to Diversified Communications, which operates the summit. (Editor’s note: Diversified Communications also operates SeafoodSource).

Another featured panel at the summit will investigate the economics of sustainable seafood in Asia, sustainability trends in other Asian markets, and how sustainable practices might come to be better recognized in Asian markets in the future. The panel will include Janice Lao, director of group corporate responsibility and sustainability at The Hongkong & Shanghai Hotels Limited; Rabobank’s Umesh Madhavan; Nobukazu Furuya with AEON TopValu Thailand; Wakao Hanaoka from Seafood Legacy; and Julie Qiu, the marketing director for Australis Aquaculture.

A separate plenary session will look into illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in Asia, and will include Environmental Justice Foundation Co-Founder Steve Trent and Adisorn Promthep, the Director-General of Thaland’s Department of Fisheries. Trent and Promthep will discuss transparency initiatives and how they can be applied in the real-world, studying examples from Thailand and Indonesia.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

US shrimp imports down for second straight month

April 18, 2019 — Shrimp imports into the United States fell again in February, with a drop of nearly 10 percent over the same month a year prior.

The U.S. brought in 42,871 metric tons (MT) of shrimp, 9.9 percent less than the 47,568 MT imported in February 2018. Indonesia, Vietnam, China and Thailand all saw significant decreases in the amount of shrimp they sent to the U.S. in February.

The major outlier to the trend continued to be India, which saw its total rise from 13,361 MT in February 2018 to 16,053 MT in February 2019, an increase of more than 20 percent. India also saw an increase in January 2019, and it was by far the largest importer of shrimp into the U.S. in 2018, becoming the first country to import 500 million pounds of shrimp in a calendar year.

The shrimp import figures were released on Wednesday, 17 April, by NOAA’s Office of Science and Technology.

Read the full story at Seafood Source