Overwaitea Food Group (OFG) and SeaChoice announced a partnership on Thursday in which SeaChoice will help the Canadian retailer develop and implement a sustainable seafood purchasing policy.
As part of the initiative, OFG has already removed several red-listed seafood species from its supermarkets, including Chilean sea bass, orange roughy and yellowfin tuna. The retailer is working to source more species on SeaChoice's green list, increase traceability and educate its staff about sustainable seafood.
OFG operates more than 115 stores in western Canada under the Overwaitea Foods, Save-On-Foods, Urban Fare, Cooper's Foods, PriceSmart Foods and Bulkley Valley Wholesale banners.
"This agreement between SeaChoice and the Overwaitea Food Group represents a major milestone along the path to achieving healthy oceans," said Bill Wareham, SeaChoice representative and marine conservation specialist with the David Suzuki Foundation. "OFG is going to be one of the first seafood retailers in Canada to show how companies can play a significant leadership role in realizing positive change for our oceans."
Similar to Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program, SeaChoice's seafood-buying guide, Canada's Seafood Guide, categories species as "best choice," "some concerns" and "avoid" according to whether the species are caught or farmed in an environmentally responsible manner. Species on the "avoid" list include Atlantic cod, farmed salmon and farmed shrimp. More than 250,000 copies of the guide have been printed.
SeaChoice was formed in 2006 by the David Suzuki Foundation, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Ecology Action Centre, Living Oceans Society and Sierra Club BC and works in collaboration with the Seafood Watch program.
