Mexican food retailer Grupo Chedraui has released its new policy for purchasing sustainable seafood products, which it claims makes it the first supermarket chain in Latin America to do so.
With a total of 306 stores in Mexico, Grupo Chedraui is the country’s third-largest retailer. The supermarket chain will source sustainably produced seafood, divided into the categories of fresh and frozen, national origin and imported, wild-caught and sourced from aquaculture operations. The company prioritize fisheries certified by the Marine Stewardship Council or Fair Trade, from farms certified by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council or Best Aquaculture Practices, rated green or yellow by the Seafood Watch guide, and fisheries and farms that are part of a fishery improvement project (FIP) or aquaculture improvement project (AIP).
The new purchasing policy is one of the concrete measures the company is adopting to ensure long-term supplies and contribute to global sustainability, according to Chedraui Senior Seafood Buyer Armando Askari Becerril. The retailer will communicate the policy with current suppliers in order to encourage fisheries and aquaculture farms to adopt responsible practices, with an eye on boosting the supply of sustainable products in the long-term in Mexico, he said, calling on other retailers and large buyers to join the campaign.
The supermarket chain was consulted in its move to source sustainable seafood products by Mexican non-governmental organization SmartFish Rescate de Valor, which looks to leverage market incentives to encourage artisanal fishers to adopt more sustainable fishing methods.
"We will support Chedraui to carry out an annual review to monitor and follow up on the measures and look for continuous improvement of the sustainable commitment," SmartFish Executive Director Cecilia Blasco said. "We hope that this commitment will motivate other supermarkets and large buyers of seafood to get involved and commit to sustainable sourcing."
The announcement was made in the context of the Latin American Summit on Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture.
Grupo Chedraui was founded in Mexico in 1920 as a family business, and it also has business in the US, with 125 retail stores in California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas which operate under the El Super and Fiesta brands.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
