UK: Sustainable seafood products on the rise

The number of MSC fish and seafood products went up by 41 % in the UK over the last year, The Guardian reports. Retailers and supermarkets respond to consumers' demand to know the provenance of the produce. The growth in the number of MSC-certified products on UK shelves has been significant, from 200 in 2008 to 988 at the end of 2011. Fisheries minister Richard Benyon has hailed the progress made over the last ten years as evidence of a shift in people's attitudes towards the quality and source of the fish they eat, but admits that challenges remain in keeping this development going.
 

The largest UK retailer of MSC-approved fish, Sainsbury's, has just launched its 100th MSC-certified product. Its Icelandic line-caught haddock will add to other successful products including Cornish sardines and its Basics range of pollock fishfingers. The launch also marks the first MSC-certified fishery in Iceland. Sainsbury has announced 20 sustainability goals earlier to be achieved by 2020, including the pledge that all its fish will be independently certified as sustainable. The supermarket's Switch The Fish campaign has boosted sales and awareness of sustainable varieties beyond the traditional big five fish.

Other retailers in the UK have also reported strong sales of ethically-sourced fish products. The Co-operative Food Group, for example, has recently said that sales of fish from sustainable sources grew by 16.3 %, from £ 178 million (212 million euros) to £ 207 million (247 million euros) in 2010/11. That was twice the rate for total fish sales, which increased by 8.2 % in the same period.
 

More than 13,000 seafood products worldwide – from prepared seafood meals to fresh fish – now bear the MSC label in 80 countries, up 50% over the last year. More information is available here: The Guardian