October 18, 2019 — A portion of the Russian longline Pacific cod and halibut fishery has been certified as sustainable to the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) standard, meaning the country’s catchers are set to further target the European and US markets.
The approval took place on Oct. 9 and this means all cod and halibut from the certified management areas caught after Aug. 1 this year can be sold as MSC certified, Sergey Sennikov, director of sustainability for Norebo Holding, Russia’s largest fishing company, during the 2019 Groundfish Forum in Berlin, Germany.
“We can target Europe and the US as well, as Pacific cod is well known in the US. It’s about having more access to the market,” he said. This places Russian Pacific cod more closely in competition with product from the US. The US fishery has been MSC certified for many years, but catch allocations have been coming down.
According to the public certification report on the Russian fishery, the portion of the total allowable catch (TAC) for Pacific cod covered by the MSC approval is 31.8%. The report only gives a TAC for 2016-2017, which was 140,000 metric tons, meaning 25,200t of this would be eligible for sale as MSC-approved.