Richard Luney, wild fish and aquaculture manager for Marks & Spencer, talks to SeafoodSource about bycatch, the retailer’s new Passionate about Seafood campaign and raising awareness of the Marine Stewardship Council eco-label.
This is part two of a two-part interview. Part one ran earlier today.
Holland: Are you working with WWF on the controversial subject of discards, and, if so, how could eliminate the practice be eliminated?
Luney: Last year, we supported the WWF by part-funding the publishing of [the report] “Effective discard reduction in European fisheries,” which gives many options for improvement. By sourcing seafood from fisheries that apply the most selective gears, fish processors, traders and retailers can reward responsible fisheries and create a powerful incentive for other fisheries to improve their fishing practices. They can also help stimulate better fisheries practice through their purchasing decisions by choosing seafood products from fisheries with low or no bycatch. By adopting more stringent policies, suppliers can make buying sustainable fish an easier option for consumers than it currently is.
M&S has been supportive of fisheries pursuing Marine Stewardship Council certification. Will it be equally as supportive of aquaculture?
Yes. Following the formation of the Aquaculture Stewardship Council and conclusion of the ASC certification standards, we will be looking at how we can apply these at the farm level. This will undoubtedly include levels of support in some of our current aquaculture supply chains.
Let’s say I’m a fish farmer and I have a product I believe would be a hit in the UK retail market but I am based in Asia or South America. What chance do I have of getting that fish into M&S stores?
The majority of fish farmers in Asia or South America would have access to or know someone who has access to a regional agent. We are continually approached by new companies. I would say on average once a week we are contacted about a new species or farming practice. When we are made aware of these we assess their suitability to the M&S brand and arrange a formal response. We are also actively visiting regions across the world and use this opportunity to visit and assess those farms we have identified having the potential to supply. In addition, we run a new species and innovations day within our head offices which encourage new and existing suppliers to join us for a tasting and review of their production systems.
What is the company’s stance on sourcing domestically or locally and transporting products great distances?
We aim to sell only the most sustainable species, but it also must taste the best, too. Where products that our customers wish to buy are not available in the UK we will procure these from the best producers worldwide, provided they meet our sustainability and quality standards. Where we procure from [abroad], we will use sea freight as a preferred option for transporting our goods. Within our Fair Partner Plan A commitments, we are doubling the amount of food we source regionally and improve the information we provide our customers by 2012. This includes seafood procured within UK waters.
How are the ways in which you evaluate and sell seafood products changing under Plan A?
We are continually increasing awareness within our customer base of MSC and MSC certification of our wild species and will be supporting this in May with the launch of our Passionate about Seafood campaign in stores, in conjunction with the MSC. Currently, 62 percent of our wild species are from fisheries that are either already MSC-certified or in full assessment for MSC, so the number of products labeled with the MSC logo will be dramatically increasing over the next 12 months.
We will continue to introduce new, lesser known sustainable species to our customers to help take pressures off more at-risk wild species. By 2015, all of our farmed species will be clearly labeled with our chosen eco-label. So in combination with the MSC logo on wild, our customers will see quite an impactful display when they shop in our fish categories in the near future. This will give us total authority on sustainability across all of the seafood we sell.
Besides Plan A, what other tactics will M&S deploy to raise consumer awareness of new products and the category as a whole?
We continue to develop and increase our seafood procurement messaging on our Web site. Currently, our customers can see our Seafood Charter, which basically summaries our fish procurement policies in a consumer facing way. Alongside our Seafood Charter, customers can also see a summary of the WWF Seafood Charter, which we signed earlier this year.
We published our second Fish Guide in the last few months, and this is available to customer by a number of routes. This includes the Web site, in our stores and also as a supplement within the M&S magazine. The Fish Guide updates our customers on our current sourcing activities, includes fish facts on key species, informs about the nutritional benefits of eating seafood and also includes recipe ideas within the “flash fish” section that our customers can follow using M&S seafood as the hero ingredient.
We have a long running relationship with the MSC, and together we are launching our Passion for Seafood campaign in May. This campaign is the start of a marketing program aimed at increasing customer awareness of the MSC and what it represents from a fish sustainability point of view. It will also help to increase customer awareness of the MSC logo on M&S products, as the number of products showing the logo are set to increase dramatically in the next few months.
In your opinion, what is the future of the seafood category, and how is M&S looking to broaden this secgment?
We must ensure that sustainability and quality remain at the core of our procurement activities. Our customers are extremely discerning and demand this every time they shop with us. We have a role to play ensuring that our customers are educated about the real issues associated with seafood sustainability, and it is imperative that we protect the trust our customers already have with the M&S brand.
We need to focus on bringing new and exciting species and innovations to our customers to encourage them to try alternative species that are in plentiful supply, taking the pressure off some of the more vulnerable wild species. In summary — tasty, sustainable and of market-leading quality.
