Waitrose has become the first supermarket chain to commit itself to the Responsible Fishing Scheme (RFS), a brainchild of the organisation Seafish, which outlines codes of conduct to prevent human rights abuses in seafood supply chains, UnderCurrentNews.com reports.
The programme ensures that fishing trawlers and the personnel who operate them match certain requirements of good practice. On its website, Seafish says, "The RFS has been developed as a way of facilitating continuous improvement in the catching sector. It helps meet the needs of the seafood supply chain by providing tangible evidence that the fish landed by a vessel has been responsibly caught. Nearly 800 vessels have been registered to RFS since it was first launched in 2006."
The Waitrose move comes just several months following a Guardian report that uncovered malpractice in Irish fishing supply chains, involving illegally low payment, sleep deprivation and human trafficking.
Aquaculture and fisheries manager at Waitrose, Jeremy Langley, said, "We’re proud to add the RFS certification to our requirements for the boats that provide our UK landed fish. The issue of human rights abuses in any supply chain is of the utmost concern to our business, and one that we believe is a pre-competitive issue that needs to be tackled head on by the industry."
"It is a credit to the UK fleet that they have been so willing to adopt this important safeguard, and we are glad to be joining the list of public supporters of the RFS," he added. "We look forward to the international rollout of the scheme over the next two years."
© 2016 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Peter Donnelly. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
