A new Sustainability seminar has been organized jointly with the Marine Stewardship Council and NASF

MSC and the Seafood Industry Join Forces at NASF Conference

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has entered into a partnership with the North Atlantic Seafood Forum conference in Oslo (NASF) to support organisation of the sustainability seminar.

The 7th NASF Conference will be held in Oslo, Norway on March 6-8, 2012.

MSC’s Deputy Regional Director Europe, Mr Camiel Derichs says that MSC for some time has been looking for well-established arenas within the seafood industry to raise understanding of Sustainable Fisheries Development.

MSC and NASF have developed a special conference platform for addressing industry issues under the sustainability umbr ella in the years to come.

Mr Camiel Derichs

Derichs says, “Sustainability is today a core part of doing business in the seafood industry, and it is critical for decision makers to fully understand the context, challenges and opportunities that come with it. To that end the Sustainability and Communications seminar 2012 will have a number of special sessions which will broaden the scope of the NASF conference. A large number of top level speakers, which have pioneered sustainability in the seafood supply chains over the last decade, will share their insights”.

MSC will jointly organize a session focusing on the perspectives on sustainability in the seafood industry among stakeholders involved in harvesting, processing, fisheries management, science and conservation.

Other sessions include presentations on the practical impacts of sustainability for business operators in the seafood supply chains, the challenges and opportunities, costs and benefits.

Finally the sustainability seminar will include a session focussing on communication in relation to business impacts, reputational risks, certification, and will explore the future of sustainability in the seafood industry.

Mr Peter Hajipieris

Chair during the Sustainability and Communications seminar will be Iglo Birdseye Chief Technical, Sustainability and External Affairs officer Mr. Peter Hajipieris. He was the architect behind the launch of Iglo Foods Group Forever Food, the world’s first totally integrated sustainability programme for a frozen food company with over 125 targets over the 2010-2015 period covering fish and seafood, vegetables and poultry operations.

Peter Hajipieris says, “We operate in global, fragmented value chains, accessing seafood from areas that are at different stages in their understanding of fisheries governance, fisheries branding and consumer behaviour and marketing. Even some developed fisheries organisations at policy, national or local level are unfamiliar with the change management skills needed to formulate governance regimes and consumer marketing programmes to demonstrate ‘responsible’ or ‘sustainable’ fisheries. Achieving a more sustainable industry will require complete value chains to become better skilled at demonstrating progress in Sustainable Fisheries Development.

The good news is that more than ever, the fish and seafood value chain are aware of the importance of sourcing and selling seafood in a manner that demonstrates corporate responsibility and there is recognition that the oceans are not inexhaustible.

During the 1st MSC Sustainability and Communications seminar, top level speakers will present a high level overview of the issues that define the sustainability debate, from different perspectives

This is driven through the industry via Sustainability programmes of which Sustainable Fisheries Development is now a core part and the hybrid working relationship of national policy/industry and NGO’s is well established. Operators such as catchers, processors, brands and retailers are adapting their ways of working to ensure a fisheries management, sourcing and marketing co-exist in order that the whole value chain is able to demonstrate responsible fishery practices and responsible food manufacturing for fish and seafood products.

Many fisheries and aquaculture sources are now independently verified by a third party

Although still a recent trend in historical terms, fisheries and aquaculture sources are generally independently verified by external third party processes of which the most widely adopted and known is the Stewardship Council model involving wild capture (MSC) and aquaculture (ASC to go live imminently). This is major industry change on a global scale.

We still face challenges in improving the understanding of such progress and how to communicate it better to our own industry let alone consumers; partly because fisheries sustainability is so very complex and consumers face the challenge of a daily barrage of often conflicting communication messaging.

Mr Jorgen J. Lund

Against this backdrop, the ‘NASF Sustainability seminar, exploring opportunities’ is a fantastic opportunity to discuss, explore and hear how industry practioners are driving their own versions of Sustainable Fisheries Development in conjunction with the certifiers and the standards holders. We hope the seminar will remove some of the ‘cloudiness’ that is so often part of the debate in Sustainable Fisheries Development”, Peter Hajipieris concluded.

NASF Managing Director of the NASF Conference Jorgen J. Lund says that the participation of key stakeholders like Iglo Foods Group and MSC at the NASF conference will attract interest and attention from seafood firms, retail and fisheries stakeholders all over the world. This will solidify NASF’s position as a leading fisheries & aquaculture business arena.

About NASF - North Atlantic Seafood Forum

The North Atlantic Seafood Forum is the world's largest seafood business conference and a leading meeting place for top industry executives.

The 7th NASF is to be staged in Oslo March 6-8, 2012. Explore cutting edge innovation, research, sustainability, policy, business, trade and capital markets issues.

100 international top-level speakers and experts will address 9 NASF seminars.

NASF is the world’s largest seafood business conference and a leading meeting place for top seafood executives attracting more than 500 top executive delegates from 300 firms and 30 countries every year

Source: MSC/NASF

Margaret E.L. Stacey
Editor Companies and Products
[email protected]
www.seafood.media

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