The Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability (GDST) has launched a consultation for a major update that will expand its model beyond seafood into other types of commodities.
GDST launched its technical standards in 2020, with the mission of creating interoperable traceability across multiple different parts of the seafood supply chain. The culmination of multiple years of effort, that standard has been adopted by a number of major seafood companies and has gained wider recognition in the seafood space.
GDST Executive Director Huw Thomas told SeafoodSource that now that it has begun to establish a robust standard for seafood, other industries have taken notice of that hard work.
“I took over in October 2024, and at the time, we were really focused on the seafood core,” he said. “Then, this time last year, we were approached by beef and leather asking whether they could build off our standard."
That question led to the creation of the Global Traceability Framework for Beef and Leather, which was developed with the WWF, Better Food Future, and RFLCT Consulting.
Thomas said that request also kicked off a 12-month pathway at GDST toward refining its standard so that it could be modular in nature, allowing it to be applied to other goods outside of the seafood space.
The move was a natural and expected one for GDST, he said.
Because the eventual goal for the organization is to cover all aspects of the seafood supply chain, it was eventually going to have to become “commodity agnostic” as it branches into creating an interoperable traceability standard for aquafeed. Many of the ingredients used in aquafeed like soy are technically outside the direct seafood category but still relevant to the industry.
“I think the reality is we’re on a journey that no other commodity has gone as far on as seafood has gone, and our journey is evolving because we don’t always know the next steps,” Thomas said.
Part of that evolution has been shifting from an organization making its presence known to one making its mission known.
Data is becoming a more important part of the supply chain landscape, and informing people about GDST’s goals to create an interoperable standard that allows for digital data exchange, as well as the steps it takes to implement and operationalize that, are a big part of GDST's mission, Thomas said.
Thomas pointed to the Food Safety Modernization Act – which is delayed but still coming, new European Union rules on issues like simplifying fisheries statistics and sustainability reporting requirements that will increase the scope of environmental disclosures, and even individual governments creating frameworks for traceability as reasons why GDST's work is growing even more essential.
“Digitization has started to become the buzzword, and people are starting to realize they need to mandate what digital and interoperable mean, so there’s this realization they need to achieve that and everybody wants it – but nobody knows how to do it,” Thomas said.
GDST is at an advantage in those situations because it started in an industry that recognized the need for traceability standards, whereas other industries often started with software solution providers offering their own solutions, Thomas said.
“Seafood happens to be ahead of many other commodities, so we’ve probably answered most of the questions that people want to know,” Thomas said. “So now, people are coming to us and going, ‘You’ve already done it? How can we learn from what you’re doing?’”
Thomas said even as the organization begins to branch into other commodities, it will continue to remain dedicated and focused on the seafood industry. The new consultations for standards that are commodity-agnostic just allows it to further achieve its seafood goals.
“If we have to do it for that, we might as do it for others,” Thomas said. “The mandate from the partners and the board is seafood, and I’ve got, as it stands today, no funding to work with anything but seafood.”
Thomas said the organization has “no appetite” to duplicate its work and effort elsewhere, and for other products outside seafood, GDST can provide its guidelines but won’t do the work for them.
“We’re aligned that seafood is the priority and other commodities shouldn’t distract us,” he said. “I’m a seafood guy, as well. I’ve been in the industry for 30-plus years; the seafood industry is my life. We’re all aligned on seafood as a priority.”
