Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) on Wednesday announced the formation of a fund to support fisheries improvements projects (FIPs) worldwide.
The fund will be used to:
• Work with producers and the seafood supply chain to initiate the development of more FIPs in critical areas.
• Train producers and exporters to lead and report on their FIPs, and transition FIP leadership to industry and other local stakeholders.
• Continue monitoring industry-led FIPs, improve public access to FIP information and update SFP’s FIP advice to producers, suppliers and international retailers.
• Provide funding to implement improvement activities in individual FIPs.
“SFP’s focus with FIPs has been to engage the private sector to lead effort to improve less well-managed fisheries,” said Jim Cannon, CEO of SFP. “Our existing model of developing and financing FIPs individually has worked reasonably well when dealing with larger fisheries and fewer suppliers feeding into a few markets. But as we extend the approach globally, to smaller fisheries and those with more diffuse and complicated supply chains, we needed another approach to convene and fund FIPs.”
The first contributor to the Fisheries Improvement Fund was Phillips Seafood, which also helped design of the concept. Phillips has committed to contributing USD 0.03 per pound of branded seafood products sold to the fund. Phillips presented SFP with an initial check for USD 5,000 at the International Boston Seafood Show in March. Additionally, Santa Monica Seafood has contributed to the fund, with USD 10,000 to support FIPs. SFP also recently partnered with Fortune Fish Company. Fortune will be highlighting a FIP on its website every two months and donating a portion of its seafood sales to the FIP Fund.
