The Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) has announced that US and Italy-based seafood importer and distributor, PanaPesca, has become SFP’s newest Target 75 Champion.
Target 75 Champions are those who have made a specific commitment to support SFP’s Target 75 initiative, which has set the goal of seeing at least 75% of global seafood volumes in key sectors being produced in a sustainable manner by 2020.
“Having PanaPesca Italy and PanaPesca USA among the supporters of the Target 75 initiative will help SFP to increase the initiative’s traction in key seafood sectors, such as squid and octopus, among the US industry, as well as to bring the Italian market into the game,” said Pedro Ferreiro, SFP’s deputy division director for buyer engagement.
PanaPesca is a leader in SFP’s squid and octopus supply chain round tables, supporting at least three different squid fishery improvement projects (FIPs), as well as pre-FIP work in three other octopus fisheries through the Global Octopus round table. The company has also demonstrated willingness to engage the industry on sustainability efforts even outside of PanaPesca’s own supply chains, such as markets in Italy.
“As an importer of a wide range of seafood products sourced from all over the world, it is essential for PanaPesca USA to support the development of sustainability initiatives, like Target 75, and organisations committed to improving seafood sustainability, like SFP, to better serve the needs of our customers and ensure the practice of environmentally friendly and socially responsible methods of fishing,” said Stefano Pagliai, PanaPesca USA procurement director.
