The Asian Seafood Improvement Collaborative (ASIC) works with producers to establish sustainability standards that lead to empowerment and improved livelihoods for producers.
Place-based sustainability refers to sustainability improvement initiatives that account for the unique needs across different communities and environments. “We believe it fosters solutions rather than forces them,” Corey Peet, Interim Managing Director at ASIC, tells Food Tank.
ASIC prioritizes relationship building and storytelling throughout the improvement program to help producers gain direct market access, increase transparency for consumers, and secure a higher market price for producers. “[Through] relationship building, we ensure that the difference between normal [market] price and what is deemed to be a fair price is [passed on] to farmers,” Trini Pratiwi, ASIC Project Manager tells Food Tank. That impact is multiplied by the 1,281 smallholder producers that ASIC works with. ASIC also helps mitigate the risks that producers face by distributing costs related to the climate crisis and disease throughout the supply chain.
ASIC also works with producers to develop and implement sustainability standards under the Fishery Improvement Project (FIP). The goal of FIPs is to generate and provide incentives to improve standards in fisheries. According to ASIC, it is becoming common for international buyers to see FIPs as a step in the direction of certification. FIPs differ from certification schemes, allowing stakeholders to be included from the start, rather than having Western-led certifying bodies impose requirements.
Globally, only 13.1 percent of wild seafood is certified, and 7.3 percent is undergoing an FIP, or “making improvements,” according to a 2019 Sustainable Seafood report produced by Certification and Ratings Collaboration. The same study reports that just over 30 percent of farmed seafood is certified, with 66 percent needing improvement or not yet assessed.
Despite the significant contribution of women throughout the industry supply chain, Pratiwi shares that their contributions often go unrecognized. ASIC is working with suppliers to ensure that social and gender standards are being implemented, including equality and non-discrimination, women economic empowerment, fair recruitment and decent working conditions, safe working environments, freedom of association, and respect for local communities.
According to a 2020 U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report, approximately 60 million people work in the fishing and aquaculture industry. Of these workers, 14 percent are women and 85 percent live in Asia. While men primarily work in open sea harvest and cultivation, women are more likely to be involved in seafood processing. This includes sorting, grading, peeling, and packaging seafood. Across ASIC’s workforce, women comprise up to 80 percent of the processing workforce depending on the plant and region.
Pratiwi emphasizes that it is crucial to establish social and gender standards throughout the seafood supply chain to make it easier for women to contribute– and to ensure that they are properly recognized and compensated for their work.