The UK seafood industry has united in favour of a new all-stakeholder working group set up in response to unethical practices within the global seafood market.
Hosted by seafood authority, Seafish, the working group, which has already had its inaugural meeting, includes the British Retail Consortium which backs the major supermarkets, producers and suppliers, including Young’s Seafood and Direct Seafoods, NGOs and charities.
Dr Paul Williams, CEO of Seafish, said: “This meeting was predominantly designed to bring together organisations that have a collective, vested interest and drive to addressing the key issues around ethics in the seafood industry, and to work together to establish the current situation on these matters.”
He pointed out that the topics for discussion included worker welfare and the legislation around ethics both at home and abroad, identifying some of the important work that is already going on in this arena, before collating the information to map out the next steps for the group.
“This formulation of the Ethics Working Group is a clear indication of a strong and clear commitment to enact positive change and make a difference, an aim which Seafish is committed to seeing through in our role as facilitator,” Dr Williams added.
The Ethics Working Group will initially work on a collective work programme and in due course will issue a joint report on current issues and a statement of intent.
