Tesco Stores, the largest retailer in the UK, has called for more collaboration in the tuna sector in order to ensure the sustainability of fish stocks, and also the industry.
Andy Hickman, responsible sourcing manager for seafood with Tesco UK, outlined the range of concerns the retailer has about the tuna sector, as well as ways to improve things, during the Bangkok Infofish Tuna 2015 conference.
Because of these challenges, our business has made a decision, at the highest level, to deepen our engagement with tuna fisheries, he told the audience at Tuna 2016.
Tesco recognizes the need to engage beyond our supply chain, said Hickman.
The retailer is now looking to collaborate pre-competitively with other businesses to promote effective management of tuna fisheries, he said.
Hickman acknowledged the difficulty for supplies, when there are divergent expectations from different European and global markets.
So, Tesco sees value in further alignment of expectations in Europe and the world on sustainability, he said.
This focus on collaboration on sustainability in tuna from Tesco comes shortly after the retailer made an announcement that branded tuna sold in its stores — which means Thai Union Group-owned John West and Mitsubishi-backed Princes — has to ultimately meet the same sustainability criteria as its own brand fish.
We have said to the brands that we want them to move to supplying tuna that is only pole-and-line, FAD [fish aggregation device]-free and/or from MSC [Marine Stewardship Council] certified fisheries,” a Tesco spokesman told Undercurrent News.
“We recognize that the brands cannot achieve this overnight, which is why we are reviewing their plans to achieve these requirements to check they are ambitious and credible, and will take commercial decisions accordingly. In the long-term, we want all wild fish we source to be from fisheries that are MSC certified,” he said.
The retailer sees MSC certification as the most effective means of providing assurance to consumers.
Meeting the level of the MSC standard, should be a priority for all tuna fisheries, said Hickman.
The MSC does not cover the human rights concerns Tesco has in tuna, but the retailer is doing independent work in its supply chain on this.
There is a lack of visibility on human rights issues in the tuna chain, he said. This does not mean there is a problem, but there have been legitimate concerns raised by NGOs.
A practical example of this pre-competitive collaboration is the call from Tesco and others, including World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and other retailers and brands, for a change in the way the regional fishery management organization (RFMO) Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) fishery is managed.
In a collaborative letter, WWF and key national and international businesses, including Tesco, Princes, John West, Sainsbury’s, Marks and Spencer, Waitrose and Asda, are calling on the IOTC to reduce catches of yellowfin tuna by 20%, and introduce harvest control rules to ensure the sustainability of all Indian Ocean tuna stocks, including skipjack.
The IOTC are meeting in La Reunion, a French Indian Ocean island, this week.
Increasingly, we realize that success is going to require engagement with RFMOs and their member countries, said Hickman.
RFMO engagement began for us prior to this current IOTC meeting, where we worked with a number of businesses in UK and around the world for the decision for the need for harvest control rules in IOTC tuna fisheries, he said.
Working alone will have limited impact, so need to work together to engage with RFMOs.
Hickman closed with a strong message.
Tuna could be a sustainability success story for the seafood industry. But, without determined and pre-competitive collaboration, this is at risk. Our customers expect us to act to protect tuna stocks for future generations, he said.
Our collective efforts on tuna will determine how we and the wider fishing sector are judged on marine conservation more broadly.
Tuna is a big part of Tesco’s business, in seafood. The retailer has 150 product lines containing tuna, including canned, fresh, frozen, sushi and pet food products. Tuna is also used in sandwiches and salads the retailer sells.
For its consumers, sustainability is a big issue.
According to Hickman, 80% of respondents to a recent MSC survey said it is important that retailers use sustainable tuna in the sandwiches Tesco sells.
Tesco research indicates that, after meeting our legal responsibilities on tax and employment, responsible sourcing is the biggest driver of trust, said Hickman.
It is key that consumers perceive that Tesco seafood products are legal and sustainable; and people in its supply chain are treated fairly, he said.
A key element of the challenges of delivering this for a retailer is the complexity of the tuna sector, however.
The fisheries we are sourcing from are multi-gear and multi-species and involve vessels flagged to a wide range of countries. The fact that tuna are migratory means they pass through the waters in many countries and areas beyond national jurisdictions, said Hickman.
Management of the fishery also involves a variety of different legal regime; flag states; coastal states; port states; RFMOs; as well as market states, he said. Partly because of the international, multi jurisdictional nature of tuna fisheries, it can be challenging to get good data on working conditions and health and safety in the supply chain.
In the face of this complexity, we don’t think it is acceptable for us to let our customers deal with that. Our job to manage that complexity, he said.
Consumers should be assured the tuna is sustainable and workers in the supply chain are treated well, said Hickman.
The bad press around FADs, floating rafts attracting tuna that are used by purse seine vessels to catch more effectively, has been widespread in the global media.
As well as tuna, turtles, sharks and other bycatch can end up getting caught as a result of FADs, NGOs argue.
FAD impact has been one of the key drivers of sourcing decisions in the UK over the last few years, said Hickman.
Thai Union’s John West brand, when under fire from Greenpeace, has pointed to the work being done on no-entangling FADs.
We welcome the move towards non-entangling FADs, but these developments must be accompanied by more robust research on their impacts. So far, we do not feel that sufficient research has been carried out, said Hickman.
Tesco also needs to see a culture of compliance in fisheries it sources from, as well as robust traceability from catch to can, to ensue claims we are making of the origin and sustainable of the tuna are robust and verifiable, he said.
This includes the identification and segregation of FAD-free tuna, which is a key talking point in the industry, he said.