Profiles

FDF Tuna Group

Leading UK industry companies work together for common good

The highly competitive seafood market industry is not necessarily where you might expect to find competitors working closely together on a supply issue, however in parts of the UK seafood industry that’s exactly what is happening. A group of major players in the UK seafood industry have pioneered a collaborative approach to the complex issue of tuna, for the sake of sustainable sourcing and responsible practice.

The Common Language Group (CLG) is a well supported national forum, convened by the UK Seafish Industry Authority, where the industry meets with environmental NGO’s and government bodies to discuss the issues surrounding seafood sustainability. This group has spawned smaller focused project groups that cooperate on specific issues, and it was from this forum that the Tuna Group was born.

Mike Mitchell from Foodvest, Lucy Pelham Burn of New England Seafood and Jon Harman of Seafish started the group to talk about common ground in tackling the issues of fresh tuna and other large pelagic fish. The group agreed that it was more effective to work together and that it makes good business sense to share the load regarding challenges in supply chains or fishery issues which apply to common sourcing areas. They invited Bryce Beukers-Stewart (formerly) of the Marine Conservation Society to join them to provide the science input needed. They were soon joined by Nigel Edwards of Seachill and together they began to explore ideas and share ideas for solutions that could improve practice in the tuna and large pelagic fisheries they had in common.

Youngs, Seachill and New England Seafood are all members of the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) Seafood Group, a trade association group for the seafood processing sector in the UK. Through that vehicle they presented a successful proposal to the Seafish Fund, which allowed them to undertake their first major intiative; to develop “Good Practice Guidelines”, working the Indian Ocean fisheries and authorities, and, targeted initially for their hook and line vessels.

The Good Practice Guidelines (GPG) is a means of acknowledging and setting a fishery apart for its good practice. The GPG idea has been further enhanced with a proposed model of a robust common traceability ‘control document’ system back to vessels. This has recently been presented to the Group’s common supply chain in the Indian Ocean. The control document is based on criteria, proven successful in the Barents sea fishery, to remove the risk of illegal unregulated or unreported (IUU) fish from the supply chain.

“We meet, on average, every other month”, commented Lucy Pelham Burn, Chair, FDF Tuna Group. “We are involved in lobbying and consultation with the regulators and the fisheries authorities both in Europe and in the countries we buy from. We speak with those who have the power to change things for the better, and between us the Tuna Group members have contributed at many levels such as:

• Speaking at the Marine Stewardship Council outreach meeting in Sri Lanka.
• Participation in Chatham House IUU Fishing updates meetings
• Chairing a session jointly with WWF at the Fishers Forum in Costa Rica on providing a market incentive for bycatch mitigation methods
• Presenting to the IUCN tuna roundtable meeting with likeminded industry colleagues from around the world
• Contributing to the development of a risk assessment tool for the UK industry, to avoid the risk of IUU fish entering European supply chains.
• Working to implement systems to give us approved economic operator status under the new EU regulations on IUU to be implemented from 2010.
• Working with the Department for International Development (DFID) on enhancing trade from developing countries.

The FDF Tuna Group members have also carried out joint fact-finding visits such as to Sri Lanka for which the group had the mandate of the British Retail Consortium’s fish buyers. The Group presented to key stakeholders including Sri Lanka’s Minister of Fisheries The Hon Felix Perera. The Group presented the first draft of our traceability control document and highlighted the key points of the EU IUU Regulations to discuss their capacity to enhance existing data gathering and reporting systems to the level that the new EU regulations require”.

In summary the FDF Tuna Group is a great example of the cooperation between enlightened companies, their suppliers, and other groups to address their mutual concerns around responsibly sourced fish. By putting their normal corporate competitiveness aside and taking a collaborative approach Lucy, Mike and Nigel believe they can contribute to the best possible outcomes for their suppliers, their individual businesses, their customers, and the sustainability of the fisheries concerned.

(Photo credit: New England Seafood)

Updated August 5 , 2008

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