MSC focuses on Poland

The Marine Stewardship Council on Tuesday announced it joined forced with the BalticSea2020 foundation to launch its new program in Poland.

Over the next three years, the MSC will help build a more sustainable fishing industry in the region, and provide Polish shoppers more opportunities to chose eco-labeled seafood, said MSC.

With more than 100,000 metric tons (MT) of annual catches, Poland is an important fishing nation on the Baltic Sea coast. The country also hosts many processing facilities that provide markets worldwide with fish and seafood products.

“Many buyers at European retail companies and brand manufacturers are demanding MSC certified seafood. They want to meet their customers’ growing demand for sustainable choices, and they recognize how their sourcing decisions contribute to the health of the world’s oceans,” said Anna Debicka, MSC Poland project manager. “Our goal is to help the Polish seafood industry compete in a global marketplace that is seeking out credible, certified products. We also aim to build relations with scientific institutes, government bodies and conservation organizations to turn them into active supporters of fisheries and businesses seeking assessment and certification.

“Finally, our target is to grow domestic demand for certified seafood, by increasing awareness for seafood sustainability with Polish consumers — a trend that is already visible in other European countries and will certainly catch on in Poland as well.”

With more than 50 Polish processing and trading companies certified to MSC’s chain of custody standard, some of the groundwork has already been done. To date, more than 200 products in Poland carry the MSC eco-label. In the next three years, the MSC plans to engage 85 Polish supply chain companies, increase the number of MSC-labeled products to 600 and see at least two Polish fishing organizations become certified to its environmental standard for well-managed and sustainable fisheries.

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