SEAFOODNEWS.COM by John Sackton – January 9, 2014 — Reports from the news conference held following two days of hosting Walmart officials in Juneau, show that ASMI and Alaska state officials are confident that Walmart will determine that Alaska’s RFM certification meets their sustainability standards.
IN a statement following the meeting, David Baskin, vice president for meat and seafood said "Wal-Mart remains committed to buying Alaska seafood, and we’re excited that ASMI has agreed to work with us to ensure the RFM standard meets the principles for credible sustainable fisheries programs."
ASMI’s Tyson Flick also said Walmart was ready to accept the RFM program.
Fick said Walmart is willing to accept other sustainability certifications besides MSC, but the company had been unclear as to the what RFM's standards were. The Walmart representatives asked that ASMI's checklist for sustainability be posted to its website, he said.
"They needed more of that assurance of things we've taken for granted," Fick said. “We will be able to demonstrate that everything they need to demonstrate sustainability is there.”
“I get the sense that they’re pretty confident there will be a resolution to this that will make everyone happy,” Fick said.
Chris Schraeder, Walmart’s senior manager of sustainability communications, also said that the company intends to continue purchasing Alaska salmon if the company determines RFM to be up to snuff.
Susan Bell, Commissioner of the Dept. of Commerce and the most senior official in the meetings, said "We want to make sure that any cloud that comes over Alaska and the sustainability of our fisheries, we want to address that immediately," said Susan Bell, commissioner of the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development.
She said she was "very optimistic" that Wal-Mart would agree that Alaska's seafood was sustainable and would continue to carry it.
Schraeder said that The Sustainability Consortium – the group charged by Walmart to broadly define seafood sustainability standards, as well as standards for other products, would release its principles in the coming days.
Flick said that the important thing for Walmart was to understand that a true third party certifier made sure, through inspections and audits, that Alaska’s fishery management was actually being carried out in the way Alaska claimed it was.
It appears that auditing by a third party to ensure sustainability practices are maintained will be part of the final standards issued by TSC, but at the same time it appears that the RFM certifications, carried out by Global Trust under ISO 65 standards, will fully meet this requirement.
The basic elements of the TSC standard will include:
1. The program and its standard must have an owner and been developed by a third party.
2. The standard, including scoring, must be transparent and publicly available for review.
3. The methodology must be scientifically based; objective data must be collected and available for analysis.
4. The process must allow for diverse stakeholder input.
5. The program must have a governing body made up of diverse stakeholders.
6. The program must state clearly the particular issue identified as a key environmental or social impact within the lifecycle of the product category.
7. The program must have a schedule for third party review, and responding to comments.
8. The program must include monitoring and evaluation that use publicly available performance indicators.
Finally, the draft introductory language says: "These principles are not intended to determine the credibility or rigor of a program or equivalency between programs beyond what is highlighted in the principles. If more detailed credibility analyses are needed for specific program types, it is recommended that users consult internationally recognized guidelines or standards, such as the FAO Guidelines for Ecolabels, or the ISEAL Credibility Principles for Standards."
This story originally appeared on Seafood.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.