SEAFOOD.COM NEWS [Seafoodnews.com] — August 29, 2013 –In response to the letter from Alaska Sen. Begich on Sodexo's dismissal of Alaska salmon due to its current purchasing guidelines, CEO George Chavel said not only would they purchase Alaska salmon so long as a chain of custody was in place, but that they are committed to the Global Seafood Sustainability Initiative (GSSI) and that they work with other organizations besides MSC in determining what seafood meets their sustainability guidelines. Begich's office has released Chavel's response.
The letter provides strong evidence of the evolution of thinking among companies who have made seafood sustainability committments.
Chavel says "MSC is not the only organization with whom we engage as part of our commitment to sustainable seafood. We continue to refine our definition of sustainable seafood through work with globally credible multi-stakeholder and non-governmental organizations. If the Alaskan salmon processors who have chosen not to continue their MSC certification are interested, we would be willing to consider alternative chain-of-custody arrangements in conjunction with the external organizations that help ensure our commitment to sustainability is both based on robust science and responds to our customer demand."
"Finally, as a founding member and current board member of the Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative (GSSI), we are taking an active role in the delivery of a common, consistent, and global benchmarking tool for seafood certification and labeling programs to ensure confidence in the supply and promotion of sustainable seafood to consumers worldwide, as well as promoting improvement in the certification and labeling programs."
Chavel also says Sodexo purchased more than 6 million pounds of salmon from Alasak in 2012, including 237,220 pounds of chum salmon.
Sodexo has a global committment to source 100% sustainable seafood in all countries where they operate by 2015. Their strategy to accomplish this focuses not just on "sustainable fisheries, but also on ensuring the integrity and traceability of the product throughout our supply chain."
He goes on to say that is one reason they have supporte MSC – that a chain of custody is in place. "This is one reason we have supported the MSC certification as it includes not only fisheries, but the entire supply chain."
In short – this letter fully supports the Alaskan processors decision to leave MSC, and asks for two things in order to keep supplying Sodexo: robust scientific evidence of sustainability in conjunction with external organizations; and a chain of custody to guarantee the integrity of the supply chain. These are in fact major goals of the GSSI initiative.
The Alaska processors, by opening up this discussion, are paving the way for the entire global seafood industry -both suppliers and their customers – to adopt a more "common, consistent, and global benchmarking tool for seafood certification and labeling programs", as described by Sodexo.
This story originally appeared on Seafood.com, a subscription site. It has been reprinted with permission.