Over the last year ASDA has managed to transform a lack of overall policy into a substantial commitment to sustainable seafood procurement and has demonstrated this by de-listing a number of destructively fished species.
The retailer has made a serious commitment to sourcing its fresh and pre-packed chilled ranges of seafood solely from well-managed fisheries certified by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) within three to five years. However, this may be a difficult goal to achieve, as Sainsbury's has discovered since it made a similar promise in 2002 to source 100 percent MSC-certified products by 2010. ASDA needs to provide evidence that it will continue to work on improving the sustainability of its seafood while it waits for further fisheries to be certified, rather than relying on the MSC. A transparent fisheries rating protocol, through which each species would have to pass, would be a substantial move in the right direction.
ASDA has offered no firm commitment or timeline for improving the sustainability of the rest of its own-brand ranges (frozen, ready-meals, tins) or of the other brand seafood that it sells. The company's policy on aquaculture is another weak point, although it is developing a code of practice for farmed fish.
As ASDA continues to improve the sustainability of its seafood, and bring sustainability issues to both political arenas and the media, it will certainly become a strong influence on the sustainability of the seafood industry as a whole.
Download the full report on ASDA. It can be found in chapter 6 of 'A Recipe for Change '.
