Celebrated Liverpool-based food and drink company Princes has launched a roadmap to source 100 percent of its canned tuna in the UK from a sustainable fishery, certified by the Marine Stewardship Council by 2025.
The plan presents three key milestones to deliver 25 percent more MSC-labeled tuna sales on paper by 2023, 50 percent by 2024 and 100 percent by 2025. The first two milestones will be equivalent to the sale of 75 million cans, the increase would be 5 times the current volume.
Prince noted the support his company has given over the past five years to tuna fishery projects, which is now paying off and many of them are successfully meeting MSC standards. To meet its sustainable sourcing objectives, Prince said it will increase its reliance on new MSC-certified fleets, in addition to those existing MSC-certified group suppliers. Princes’ head of seafood, Neil Bohannon, said Princes is committed to supporting the long-term sustainability of tuna stocks and recognizes the important role it plays in advocating continued compliance with fishing practices and sustainable environmental change.
“That’s why we committed to buying only tuna from fisheries that are MSC certified, participate in an FIP working towards MSC certification, or from verified and well-managed sources. [dispositivos de agregación de peces] o without pole and line, achieving this long-standing ambition in 2021, and now we are going one step further,” Bohannon said. “Our goal of 100 percent MSC-certified sustainable sourcing is another ambitious target, but one that we are confident we will achieve through continued investment and engagement with retailers, fisheries, NGOs and other industry stakeholders.”
MSC Tuna Buyers Report 2021, Bohannon noted that despite the growth of MSC fisheries globally and in global terms, the first-time adjusted volume sold determined a decline in the two major markets for MSC-labeled tuna by 2021, reaching 100,000 tons, decreasing by a percentage of 12% compared to 2020.
Also Bohannon said that global fisheries have made “significant progress” toward achieving MSC standards in recent years, but that brands and retailers also have a crucial role to play in advancing seafood sustainability by making more certified sustainable products available to shoppers. “Consumers want to be assured that the fish they are eating has been sustainably sourced and MSC certification is the best way to do that,” he added.
In 2021, Princes also reached its target of reducing its Indian Ocean yellowfin tuna supply by a corresponding 50 percent from 2017 levels, one year ahead of its 2022 deadline, to support the long-term sustainability of stocks there.
