Mowi has received a Special Recognition Award at Compassion in World Farming’s (CIWF) Good Farm Animal Welfare Awards.
The judges praised the company for its commitments to the welfare of Atlantic salmon across its sites in Norway, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, Chile and the Faroe Islands.
Dr Gordon Ritchie, group manager fish health & welfare, Mowi, said the company was proud to receive the award. “As the largest producer of ocean reared salmon, it is our responsibility to develop industry leading standards on welfare and sustainable practices and to make continuous improvements, all underpinned by investment in robust research and development by dedicated teams across the entire value chain,” he said.
Mowi commitments to welfare include using a stun-kill percussive system, as recommended by CIWF, for all of their salmon. The company has a stocking density of around 8kg/m³, well below the maximum permitted density of 25kg/m³, and below CIWF’s recommendation of 10kg/m³.
Mowi has also made several other global commitments including sufficient environmental enrichment in pens, no routine mutilations and no use of generic engineering or growth promoters.
To improve transparency, the company has introduced a QR tracking system which customers can scan to trace the full lifecycle of the product such as where and when the salmon/roe was hatched, where the salmon was raised and how it was processed when harvested.
“Awareness of the sentience of fish and of the welfare issues relating to fish farming is relatively new compared to other farmed animals but getting such a big player as Mowi on board, and actively making changes to their policies, is a big step forward in achieving wider recognition of the need to improve the plight of farmed fish,” said Dr Tracey Jones, global director of food business at CIWF.
