SOURCING PROCEDURE & PRINCIPLES
Fish4Ever is a brand owned by Organico Realfoods Limited, a privately owned UK-registered company, co reg: 2610753, VAT reg: 609 852 810. The Fish4Ever ethical and sourcing policy is therefore in addition to the Organico ethical policy.
Fish4Ever Sourcing We will in general:-
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Choose the best possible option in terms of marine conservation and sustainable exploitation of the seas for each type of fiish that we buy taking into account commercial realities.
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Vocally support sustainable options, including NGO’s and other groups, promoting sustainability both at sea and on land.
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Educate both the public and the trade – both our suppliers and our customers - and aim to act as a best practise example in the industry both to embarrass less committed players and achieve an improvement in sourcing across the board.
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Improve the transparency and traceability of our sourcing and support MSC certification, as an independent audit of our sustainability and as a system that is dedicated to improving sustainability standards in fisheries management, as and when appropriate. Specifically:- Our sustainability principles are grouped under 3 headings: land, sea and people:-
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All land ingredients to be certified organic in line with EU organic regulations.
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· We will act to minimise the risk that our fish might be sourced from illegal operations by a) avoiding foreign long distance fleets, b) avoiding areas that we know have high likelihood of illegal fishing or where we know management is particularly lax or lacking and c) verifying the lists of illegal fishing boats as published by the Regional Tuna Authorities, the FAO and Greenpeace.
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· For each and every species of fish we pack, we will use methods and equipment that are as targeted as possible to achieve near-zero by-catch. This means that with respect to tuna fisheries, we refuse gillnets, dolphin-sets, long lines and purse-seiners setting on FAD’s. All these methods are regarded as having too much by-catch risk.
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· We do not catch or pack any fish that is bottom dwelling at present and so our fishing do not involve equipment that can damage fragile eco-systems at the bottom of the sea. There are some products that we have been looking at and, were we to add these, we would only do so using the most selective method possible – for example we would not support dredging or trawling.
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· We do not pack farmed fished at present; if we were to offer farmed fish in future, we pledge to only offer fish from the responsibly-farmed methods. We believe that organically farmed fish is the most appropriate ecological farming method. Our own preference is for wild fish but we believe that aquaculture has a place to play in reducing pressure on wild stocks, not withstanding the fact that the feed of farmed fish needs to be sustainably managed too.
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· In terms of working conditions both on board and in the factories that supply us we will endeavour to choose the best options. It is for this reason that we do most of our fishing and packing within the EU where high standards of workers rights and good legislation prevails. Outside the EU we will look to select best options. In any packing outside the EU or US, we will look at the company’s record and reputation in terms of employee rights and also look for an outside verification or audit for that record - for example the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI).
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· We will avoid the catch of juvenile fish to allow the species time to reproduce. This “avoiding” is done in several ways – through management restrictions for example fishing restrictions during spawning seasons and/or in spawning zones, through equipment restrictions – for example use of more selective gear – with wider meshes sizes or finally through a minimum size requirement. In the case of tuna, our policy against fishing around FAD’s is in part determined by the fact that the skipjack fisheries routinely set their nets in areas known to be the spawning grounds of other tuna species, including yellowfin and big-eye thereby catching a large amount of juveniles.
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· For each type of fish canned, our suppliers are required to fill in a sustainability questionnaire as well as a quality control questionnaire. We endeavour to visit all of our packers and carry out factory audit. Through our quality control procedures we make our suppliers aware of our sustainability concerns and requirements and verify that traceability systems are in place to be able to locate the origin of a specific production back through to the supplier of fish and eventually the name of the boats. We monitor our sourcing pro-actively and engage with suppliers on the basis of sustainability first and foremost.
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· In terms of management of the seas we support a) the establishment of no fishing as well as general conservation marine parks, b) the precautionary principle - for example that lower quotas be established or more stringent rules where there is stock uncertainty and c) the eco-system approach whereby fish stocks are not managed in isolation of each other but together with other species of fish with the impact on other marine species as well as on the general marine environment considered as part of a complex inter-related system. We oppose d) fishing subsidies that encourage over-fishing, e) long distance foreign water fleets fishing in the waters of developing countries.
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· In our sourcing decisions, we will take into account total stocks as well as both broad and localised management questions and attempt to extrapolate a best choice. But our priority will be to ensure we make our choice first in terms of equipment and methods and in terms of who we are working with and where (i.e. in which part of the sea they are fishing) rather than the broader issue of which stock our fish belongs to. This is because there is wide disagreement on total stock levels and difficulty for a small company to make realistic comparisons or indeed to chop and change if recommendations on the viability of stocks changes. This does not mean that we will not look at total stocks but it is commercially untenable to withdraw our own better-sourced product whilst other operations – many of which are the root cause of the problem - are allowed to flourish.
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· We believe that good nutritious food is a right for everybody. We believe the current food system, based on a skewed concept of market forces, encourages the supply of foods at ridiculously low prices and therefore also encourages environmental and social damage that is left outside the cost equation. The costs are borne by society or the planet in general. This applies to all commodities produced in both the developing and developed world. We believe food needs to be better valued and better produced and that this re-evaluation must respect the right of a decent livelihood for the producers of food at all levels. We believe the power structures in the market-based system are largely at fault. We believe that government subsidies in rich countries, including hidden and obvious subsidies, amount to a preference for a food distribution system that is fundamentally at flaw an fundamentally unsustainable. We therefore aim to act as a best practise example and militate for a more equitable, fair and environmentally competent global food system.
Further policy: Fish4Ever is part of Organico Real Foods click here to see the general company policy.
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Sustainability 
