The number of seafood products carrying the Marine Stewardship Council's eco-label marking products from well managed and sustainable fisheries reached 2,000 this month.
The London organization announced today the product that hit the milestone was a retail box of scallops from the Patagonian scallop fishery. The 500-gram box is part of Carrefour's Eco-Planète product line sold across France.
Carrefour launched its first MSC product last February and now offers 18 refrigerated and frozen seafood products under its own brand. With more than 15,000 stores in 32 countries, the Carrefour Group is the second largest retailer worldwide and the largest European retailer.
"For Carrefour, it is important to offer its customers seafood products that are selected for their excellent environmental credentials in protecting fishery resources. We are committed to this path and are planning to widen our MSC range in 2009," says Pierre Bareille, Carrefour's controlled products manager.
It took seven years to get from the first MSC-labelled product to the 500th, just nine months to reach 1,000, and product No. 2,000 was reached just one year after that.
"This is a tremendous rate of growth in MSC labeled product lines," says MSC CEO Rupert Howes. "It is testament to the commitment and hard work of our many corporate partners in the retail and foodservice sectors. The increased number of products, and choice of certified fisheries, is only possible thanks to the efforts of the fisheries putting themselves through assessment, the governments who have supported them and the other stakeholders whose input in the assessments and MSC governance has proved so vital."
