Argentina’s coastal shrimp fishery in the southern province of Chubut is on the verge of achieving Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification.
Chubut’s coastal shrimp fishery lands between 60,000 and 90,000 metric tons of shrimp a year, comprising about 40 percent of the national total, and has undergone a 10-year fishery improvement program (FIP) to secure the certification.
“After almost 10 years of working with our partners on the improvement process of the coastal shrimp fishery in the waters of Chubut, this is a significant step forward, and we are about [to achieve] the long-awaited certification under the MSC’s sustainability fishing standard,” Elba Brunetti, the Argentina director at Buenos Aires-headquartered NGO CeDePesca, said in a release.
The certifying body overseeing the certification process, Argentina-based International Agricultural Organization (OIA), said that there is still work to do even after certification is secured and that some indicators of sustainability will need to be strengthened continually to maintain the credential.
Nevertheless, the catches of 32 vessels from Chubut’s Rawson Port participating in the FIP can now be stocked and sold at a later date with the MSC’s blue label of sustainability, as long as there are no significant negative observations made during the required 30-day period for registered stakeholders to submit comments.
Chubut has a total of 52 coastal vessels in its shrimp fishery, and the remaining 20 ships, along with the artisanal fleet, will be able to secure the certification in the future if they meet certain requirements.
Companies participating in the process include Achernar, Grupo Veraz, Grupo San Isidro, Iberconsa, Grupo Conarpesa, Consermar, Food Partners Patagonia, and Cabo Vírgenes.
Once the MSC’s fishery certification is officially announced, each of the companies can certify their chain of custody to market the shrimp with the MSC label.
CeDePesca Executive Director Ernesto Godelman added that the organization is also working to achieve shrimp fishery certification in national waters.
The preparatory phase of the full assessment process for the coastal shrimp fishery in Argentina began in April 2023 when CeDePesca submitted the document checklist to OIA. The start of the full public assessment process was announced in March 2024 at Seafood Expo North America.
