The Pescafria-Pesquera Rodriguez Barents Sea Cod (Gadus morhua) fishery is near to secure MSC certificate for sustainable and well-managed fisheries. The products of the fishery will be eligible to carry the blue MSC ecolabel. Pescafria-Pesquera Rodriguez is a family-run company, founded in 1940 and based in the Basque Country and Galicia. The company holds 27.50 percent of the Spanish quota for cod in the Barents Sea which equates to 3,700 tonnes in the most recent year and which is the largest quota at national level.
The fishery has largest market in United Kingdom and the main product is frozen cod fillets; a small proportion is sold to the Spanish market as salted cod and cod roe. The MSC runs the world’s leading environmental certification programme for wild capture fisheries. Francisco Rodriguez, manager of Pescafria, became aware of the MSC program and ecolabel following the certification of the Alaska pollock fisheries.
According to Rodriguez MSC certificate will differentiate their products from others in the seafood market. It also guarantee sustainable and well-managed fishery. Nicolas Guichoux, MSC Regional Director said that a new cod fishery entering the MSC program opens up further opportunities for meeting the increasing demand for certified sustainable seafood from European markets.
