Global Effort Launched on Seafood Traceability

The Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability has launched a web-based platform inviting companies to join in a collaborative process to adopt voluntary standards and guidelines for interoperable seafood traceability systems.

The announcement during Seafood Expo Global in Brussels, Belgium, came from the World Wildlife Fund. “Companies around the world have been looking for ways to lower costs and improve access to reliable seafood traceability without getting trapped into inflexible proprietary systems,” said David Schorr, senior manager of WWF’s Transparent Seas Project. The organization plans to utilize its online platform (http://www.traceability-dialogue.org) to facilitate virtual and face-to-face meetings of working groups tasked with designing a new voluntary seafood traceability framework.

Traceability of seafood is recognized as a way to help meet sustainability commitments, fight illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, and reduce other supply chain risks, including the elimination of slavery at sea. Consumers as well as government entities in the European Union, United States and elsewhere have been increasingly demanding to know the origin of seafood for sale and whether those seafood products for sale in their markets were legally produced.

Organizers are planning a technical workshop in Bangkok, Thailand, in early May, and an informational meeting during the SeaWeb Seafood Summit (www.seafoodsummit.org) in Seattle in June.