What is Findus doing to ensure sustainable fish stocks?

With sustainability undoubtedly a key expectation in each and every industry, particularly seafood and fish, New Food spoke exclusively to Findus to ascertain precisely what the Swedish company are doing to ensure sustainable development.

So to begin, could you summarise what Findus stands for?

Our total assortment of fish is sustainably sourced. This is very important for us and also a big concern for consumers. We also catch up on trends regarding healthy eating and helping consumers to eat more fish in a very convenient way. The “Steam Delicious” range for example, aims to provide you with a healthy fish dinner in only 4 minutes and our battered fish products are all based on an original recipe. Our work with sustainability is a key driver in our cooperation with the UK chef Jamie Oliver and the fish range we produce under his endorsement.

With our launch plans for the US market – Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is a key part of our message to trade and consumers.  We aim not only to supply better tasting fish but also our range will be 100% MSC, a point we hope the consumer will consider favourably.  

What are the biggest challenges affecting fish stocks and sustainability that we currently face?

Global fisheries are under strain due to illegal fishing or overfishing. EU fisheries are still irresponsibly used despite the recent reforms of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).

In addition, some catching methods have been challenged because they catch non-target species and this ‘by-catch’ is often wasted. In some cases catching methods can also damage the marine ecosystem.

What solutions are present to tackle these issues? Specifically what is Findus doing?

Our approach is to operate a ‘Forever Food Together Responsibly Sourced and Prepared’ standard for all our wild capture fish, starting with making fisheries more sustainable.

For nearly 20 years, our business has led the drive in sustainable fisheries development standards with the aim of generating productive fisheries for the long term using three strategies:

• Use of the UN Food Agriculture Organization (FAO) Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries to reference guide on how to source our fish responsibly.
• We thus do not accept any fish that is IUU (illegal, unreported and unregulated) or that comes from overfished stocks. All of our wild-caught fish is responsibly sourced with full traceability to the point of capture
• Currently, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) standard best meets our wild capture fisheries certification scheme criteria needs.

Imagine we are having this conversation in a year’s time, what do you hope to have changed?

We sincerely hope that the share of IUU (illegal, unreported and unregulated) has decrease as a part of UN Sustainable Development Goal no 14.

It is clear that sustaining our fish stocks will be an ongoing challenge. To read more on the subject, click here.