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FINDUS’s 'Fish for Life” program and its support of the Marine Stewardship Council

4. Environment

Biodiversity and sustainable resource management

Context

Findus is a leading international frozen food brand, operating in Retail and Foodservice sectors. They grow, develop, produce and market a complete range of frozen food products including vegetables, vegetable mixes, prepared meals, recipe dishes, fish and seafood.  

At the moment, Findus is the number one buyer of certified Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) products.  As part of its long-term ‘Fish for Life’ commitment to sustainable seafood, the Findus Group will take its ambition one step further by buying 100% of the wild-caught fish for its Findus retail brands across Europe from fisheries independently certified to the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) standard by 2012.

Objectives

- To ensure a sustainable seafood industry

APPROACH

Fish for Life: Fish for Life is in essence a guarantee to consumers that all the fish (wild and farmed) supplied in the Findus brand has been sourced according to rigorous audit and the Findus Group’s ‘Ten Principles for Responsible Fish Procurement.’

Fish for Life program supports and approves of independent certification program for sustainable development, especially the MSC for wild fish.

A few points on why the Marine Stewardship Council is considered as the international “gold standard” for certifying the sustainability of wild fisheries:

- It is currently the only international scheme that operates within guidelines set by the FAO (Food & Agriculture Organisation of the UN) and benchmarks against the FAO Code of Conduct for responsible fisheries.

- It requires fisheries to demonstrate and certify traceability.

- It operates a process of proper engagement and interaction with fisheries, including making annual review and recommendations for corrective change

-The MSC and its logo have so far achieved the best international visibility in terms of marketing sustainably sourced seafood to consumers

Fish for Life supports and endorses independent sustainability certification schemes (such as MSC for wild caught fish and the developing Aquaculture Stewardship Council scheme for farmed) but also represents and reflects the Findus Group’s broader commitment to actively contribute to long term improvement – such as by funding research, engaging with industry and lobbying governments to implement better legislation.

The “Jours Bleus” marketing campaign in stores is the culmination of a joint venture and unites Findus, the biggest food retailers in Europe, and the MSC eco-label for sustainable fishing. The primary objective is to encourage consumers to choose environmentally friendly seafood.  By choosing products bearing the MSC eco-label, consumers contribute to the preservation of our ocean resources.

These actions will lead the way to a significant increase in products bearing the MSC ecolabel across Europe, offering consumers more sustainable seafood choices. It will encourage wider participation from fisheries, catalysing further improvements in the way the oceans are fished, and effect further transformations in the seafood supply chain around the world.

CONTRIBUTION TO COMPANY PERFORMANCE

- 50 million branded retail packs carrying the MSC logo in Europe per year

- UK stage winner of the European Business Commitment to the Environment Awards

Benefits

- Improved sustainability in the fishing industry

- Help provided to individual fisheries to achieve MSC standards

Turnover
plus d’1 milliard de $
Country
United Kingdom

Mise à jour le 20/05/2016

Creative Commons Attribution This work by Réseau Alliances – World Forum Lille is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.