McDonald’s China recently announced that it will now include the blue Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) eco-label on its Filet-o-Fish sandwiches, Double Fish burgers, and Kids Fish Fillet burgers, served in more than 5,000 restaurants nationwide.
The initiative, according to Gu Lei, chief impact officer of McDonald’s China, “will continue to help protect the vitality of the ocean.” Gu described McDonald's China as “actively building a sustainable supply chain to reduce damage to the environment through its seafood procurement.”
McDonald’s has been serving MSC-certified fish, the majority of which is Alaska pollock, at U.S. and U.K. locations for over a decade now. Partnering with McDonald’s China is part of the MSC’s push to increase the number of certified products sold in the country, according to MSC China Program Representative An Yan.
In the 10 years since it opened an office in China, the number of MSC-labeled products in the country has increased from 10 to around 300, and MSC’s goal is to increase that number to 1,000 by 2030. Yan told SeafoodSource her office is working closely with Chinese seafood processors and retailers through frequent collaboration with the China Chain Store and Franchise Association (CCFA) to achieve that long-term plan.
Alaska pollock producers have welcomed the move, including Craig A. Morris, CEO of the Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers (GAPP), who expects the initiative to net higher prices for his members. Morris has already seen the measurable gains that MSC certification offers and he said an ongoing global push toward sustainability will only increase that growth.
“All U.S.-caught wild Alaska pollock is both MSC- and Responsible Fisheries Management-certified sustainable, so, any movements by major customers toward [purchasing from] certified sustainable fisheries like the U.S.-caught wild Alaska pollock fishery is beneficial to GAPP’s members,” Morris said. “In 2020, we conducted a study with Cornell University that showed the U.S. wild Alaska pollock fishery’s MSC certification lifted our block price by 3.4 percent in large measure because it gave us access to important customers like McDonald’s that were requiring MSC certification in their various global supply sourcing programs.”
Francois Mosnier, head of the oceans program at nonprofit financial think tank Planet Finance, said the low barriers around pollock sustainability grants McDonald’s – through its MSC certification requirement – minimal-effort, positive publicity.
“Because McDonald’s primarily uses Alaska pollock in [its] fish burgers, the huge majority of the volumes sold are MSC-certified anyway,” Mosnier told SeafoodSource. “Put differently, it could well be that MSC certification is a bonus for them but not the main criterion of choice. Some key criteria could be low price, high volumes, and relatively low level[s] of sustainability concerns compared to other whitefish species.”
MSC’s strategy in China, however, has been to promote its label as a guarantor of food safety and quality in the consumer market, with less emphasis on oceanic or fishery sustainability – topics on which Chinese social media and state-controlled media outlets have grown defensive due to Western outlets’ continual coverage of Chinese IUU infractions.
Nevertheless, consumer research from 2022 from the MSC suggests that Chinese consumers increasingly value the importance of sustainable seafood, with the category “environmentally friendly or sustainably sourced” ranking fourth in factors motivating seafood purchases in China.
Not everyone in the seafood industry views MSC certification as automatic proof of sustainable sourcing, though. Advocacy groups Make Stewardship Count and On The Hook recently published an external review of MSC finding weaknesses with MSC certification standards and calling for tightened criteria for MSC certification.
“While the public face of the MSC website is populated with plucky, small-scale fishers, often from low-income countries, the behind-the-scenes reality is industrial,” the review said. “In the pursuit of consumer visibility … the MSC has certified ever greater volumes of the global fish catch and now enjoys a near monopoly in the eco-labeled seafood market.”
Still, MSC’s partnership with McDonald’s could prove significant financially, given the scale of the latter’s business in China as well as the growth of the quick-service restaurant format in China. In a statement to SeafoodSource, Euromonitor International, a market research provider, has described a “robust recovery expected for limited-service restaurants” post-pandemic. Euromonitor ranked McDonald’s second to Yum Brands, which includes brands like KFC and Pizza Hut, in terms of Chinese market share.
Photo courtesy of McDonald's China
