The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) on Wednesday released a five-year strategic plan laying out the sustainable fisheries organization’s priorities and goals leading up to 2017.
The new plan is built around four key strategies — assure the MSC’s program credibility and effectiveness, cultivate and expand markets for sustainable seafood, grow the supply of sustainable seafood and scale and support a global enterprise.
The plan calls for the overall market share for MSC-certified seafood to be doubled over the next five years. That would equate to market share of 30 to 40 percent in “advanced” Northern Europe markets; a quadrupling of market share in the U.S. and Canadian markets; significantly growing market share in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Southern Europe; and introducing the MSC concept in China and certain Asian markets.
As part of its efforts in China, the MSC will open an office there “to introduce the MSC concept and to engage to a greater degree with chain-of-custody certificate holders.”
The plan also calls for MSC-certified product to represent 15 percent of the world’s seafood catch by 2017 and 20 percent by 2020. Currently, nearly 150 fisheries are MSC certified, representing about 8 percent of the world’s seafood catch, with an additional 135 fisheries under assessment.
“This new business plan comes at an exciting and important juncture for the MSC,” said MSC CEO Rupert Howes. “There is powerful momentum behind the sustainable seafood movement, and as market demand has grown, so too has demand for credible certification and assurance programs. This new plan will focus our efforts and resources on ensuring that the MSC’s program stays credible and becomes increasingly user-friendly for all partners, at the same time as leading to an increased supply of MSC certified seafood and delivering on our mission to contribute to the health of the oceans.”
Click here to access the MSC’s “Integrated Strategic Plan Summary Document” >
