Alaska salmon suppliers: ‘It’s still the same fish’

The major Alaska salmon processors that earlier this month opted to rejoin the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) program that they left three years ago are still backing the Responsible Fishery Management (RFM) scheme formed five years ago to give global seafood buyers greater choice in seafood sustainability certification.

“The decision to join the existing [MSC] certificate doesn’t impact the RFM program,” said Alexandra Oliveira, Ph.D., seafood technical program director for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) on the Seafood Expo Global show floor. “It was a marketing decision based on a strong [U.S.] dollar, combined with a very large prediction for the Bristol Bay sockeye salmon run.”

Alaska seafood processors Trident Seafoods, Icicle Seafoods, Ocean Beauty and seven others that left MSC will have a large inventory of fish to market after this summer’s haul, which be heavy on sockeye and pink salmon. They also understand the reality that certain markets require the MSC stamp, Oliveira said.

“It’s the same fish,” she added. “It doesn’t change because there’s a label on it. We understand their decision and stand behind them. Our role is to increase the value and expand the market” for Alaska seafood.

High certification and chain-of-custody costs for the MSC ecolabel were one of several factors in the processors’ decision a few years ago. That hasn’t changed.

What has changed is MSC’s relationship with the Alaska seafood industry, said Stefanie Moreland, director of government relations and seafood sustainability at Trident Seafoods, a Seattle-based company that is one of North America’s largest seafood suppliers.

“They’re respectful of a world where there are multiple certification schemes,” she said. “There has been a changing landscape on two fronts. One, RFM has really made strides toward acceptance in many markets. We feel like we’ve solidified the idea of multiple successful certification schemes in the marketplace, and we support choice for certification. We also believe that certification should be in the background, like it is for food safety and other issues.”

Moreland pointed to the early-January appointment of seafood industry veteran Brian Perkins as the new Americas regional director for MSC as a turning point.

“It was an important signal that MSC was serious about restarting our relationship,” she said, but stressed that the position on the role of certification for Trident — and the Alaska seafood industry in general — hasn’t changed. “But we recognize that there are some markets where MSC is strongly preferred.”

Oliveira added that the RFM program will be participating in a Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative (GSSI) pilot program to align with the most up-to-date benchmarking requirements. Moreland said GSSI would give retailers an important tool to make sense of third-party certification schemes.

“It is the same fish,” echoed Moreland, “but the management system has been in place the whole time. We support sustainable management and we do it because it’s our future.”