Richard Luney, wild fish and aquaculture manager for Marks & Spencer, talks to SeafoodSource about the retailer’s commitment to sustainability, teaming up with the World Wildlife Fund and reform of the European Union’s Common Fisheries Policy. This is part one of a two-part interview.
Holland: You recently changed roles at Marks & Spencer. What will you focus on in your new position?
Luney: I have been at M&S for over 12 years now, but for the last four years I have been focusing primarily on our ready-to-eat fish delicatessen range and … sourcing of our prawns, lobster and crab. In January, I started a new role as wild fish and aquaculture manager. M&S has employed a marine biologist for over 15 years, and I am delighted that Hannah Macintyre has joined the team from Marine Ecological Surveys in Bath as our new marine biologist. Our focus over the next 18 to 24 months will include:
• Maintaining and further developing our market leading sustainability credentials across all the fish and seafood we sell.
• Delivering our 2012 Plan A commitment on wild-capture species being sourced from Marine Stewardship Council-certified fisheries.
• Engage with our fisheries and suppliers to ensure we “future-proof” our sustainable sources.
• Be actively involved in the development of the World Wildlife Fund/Aquaculture Stewardship Council standards for aquaculture and ensure that this falls in line with our new Plan A commitment that we announced in March — that by 2015 all of the aquaculture species we sell will come from the most sustainable sources.
Sustainability is a core requirement for any seafood buyer. It isn’t, however, a guarantee of quality. Can you explain how M&S selects products that deliver both quality and eco-credentials.
There are a number of species that our team has tried in the past that have been MSC-certified but did not deliver through a taste panel that we conducted. I think the important point here is that any buyer or fish team should be continually reviewing and tasting new species together with revisiting the ones that perhaps were not as good a year or two ago. Things change and improvements get made, and it is important to never forget that.
One route we have taken to ensure we are continually stimulated by sustainable species is to organize a forum where our current and potential new suppliers can come into our food center and panel new and innovative species or concepts to the team. Sustainability is, of course, the first question we ask. However, we are very aware that sustainability is not a guarantee of any level of product quality. This stimulation helps pave the way for future new product development but importantly revisits species that we didn’t particularly rate before.
New aquaculture species such as tilapia have really come on in the United Kingdom in recent years and we are keen to be exploring some farmed alternatives to the traditional farmed salmon we sell. And it is also important to look at farmed whitefish species that could potentially take some pressure off wild stocks.
Our customers expect an extremely high level of quality across all the food we sell. They trust us to deliver on sustainability, and it’s our job to deliver the quality above and beyond what they expect. So sometimes you have to be bold and simply not stock a line until it is good enough.
In January, M&S became the first retailer to sign the WWF’s Seafood Charter. What does this commitment mean?
The WWF charter signed jointly by M&S and WWF back in January ensures that M&S and WWF work together to raise the awareness of sustainability issues relating to seafood products from both wild capture and aquaculture, and we aim to promote solutions to these issues such as a certification scheme like the MSC.
We want to contribute to a future in which sustainable fisheries thrive in healthy ecosystems, benefiting people, businesses and species that depend on them. We are working together toward sustainable fisheries management and aquaculture production and will ensure that we safeguard valuable marine ecosystems, ensuring the long-term viability of the seafood supply that we all depend on.
Following our external press launch in January we have been re-looking at the way in which we monitor and control our sustainable sourcing, launching a complete review of 100 percent of the seafood M&S sells. We have always tracked our company-wide seafood sourcing, but now it is time to take a slightly different approach.
We have taken a “step wise” approach to sustainable seafood, which includes developing a sustainable procurement policy improvement plan to include the promotion of the MSC and MSC products and ensure traceability of all wild seafood. In addition, we will promote and improve transparency and awareness of seafood sustainability amongst our customers, employees and our key stakeholders — an area which we see as vitally important. We will contribute to and support the establishment and development of standards for certifying our aquaculture products and aim to be the first UK retailer to adopt the formal sustainability standards that will result from the Aquaculture Dialogues.
Over the last three months, and with the help and support of dedicated resources from WWF, we have been able to carry out an independent assessment of our wild capture species. Our detailed assessments have grouped our fisheries and species into distinct areas such as MSC-certified, undergoing MSC certification and fisheries where we have identified improvements that can be made.
This is very much a journey and it centers on future-proofing our procurement activities by directing and implementing fishery improvement plans where they are needed.
The charter also implies that M&S will source fish certified by the MSC whenever available and sustainably certified by other bodies when an MSC product isn’t available. What messages does this send to M&S’s customers?
We are committed to our Plan A 2012 target of aiming to source and sell wild fish certified to the MSC standard. We do not currently rate any other certification scheme as a suitable alternative to the MSC.
We will be engaging with our current fisheries to ensure that they are aware of the MSC certification scheme and encourage signing up to assessment. We have already supported fisheries by funding assessment and gathering of data to aid with gaining full accreditation.
In 2012, where we do not have MSC-certified species, we will ensure that these have been independently assessed by a third party to ensure sustainability until MSC accreditation is available.
The charter also requires that M&S help WWF with reform of the European Union’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). Explain what this entails.
We are engaged continually with the WWF and have agreed to support WWF in the promotion of CFP reforms. Where we are in agreement with WWF’s approach we will publicly support their activities.
As an example, we met with WWF and relevant EC stakeholders in Brussels at the European Seafood Exposition to show our support for CFP reform and aim to be covering areas such as mandatory long-term management plans for all EU fisheries by 2015, effective regionalization, maximizing value from catch to consumer and ensuring that CFP principles apply to all fisheries in EU waters and beyond.
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