August 14, 2018 — An effort to court major retailers in China appears to be paying off for the Marine Stewardship Council, which teamed with Walmart and the China Chain Store and Franchising Association (CCFA) for the launch of a “Sustainable Seafood Week” in a Sam’s Club store in Shenzhen the week of 13 August.
Chinese retailers want to make the upstream portion of the supply chain more sustainable, according to Pei Liang, secretary general of the CCFN. He pointed to the MSC label as a “standard” by which Chinese retailers can measure their sustainability efforts.
“We want environmental protection from suppliers to consumers,” Shi Jia Qi, Walmart China’s vice president of government relations, told SeafoodSource. Shi said Walmart will seek to increase the number of MSC-labeled goods stocked in Sam’s Club stores in China.