Ecotrust Canada is partnering with local fishermen and fish buyers to create a seafood tracing and marketing program that will help them meet upcoming regulatory requirements.
Ecotrust’s local fisheries project manager said the overall aim of the project, called the Pacific to Plate initiative, is to create compliance and transparency in the fish supply chain.
The European Union legislated a requirement that all imported seafood be traceable back to the source by Jan. 1, 2010.
“That import rule will affect any of our Canadian fish that have an export market into the E.U.,” Laura Loucks said.
Loucks added that Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is looking at implementing a similar regulatory requirement in Canada so there can be some transparency around food safety locally.
Ecotrust is concerned that with a potentially sweeping policy change like that, small-scale independent businesses will have increasingly unbearable costs.
“In our experience, often a program gets adopted to implement the regulatory requirements, but it’s typically the Cadillac model — the one size fits all approach,” she said.
“On the West Coast we have supply chains that have many different independent business owners who play a very important role in the supply chain, but individually would not be able to bear the cost of a traceability program.”
In conjunction with the Area G Troll Association, BC Dogfish Hook and Line Industry and the Vancouver Island Seafood Buyers Association, Ecotrust hopes to create a system that would not be cost-prohibitive and that would create more sustainable livelihoods for local people.
Loucks said the Pacific to Plate program would also help dispel the perception that fishermen are not getting a fair price for their fish.
“We feel its important to understand the value chain by getting everyone involved in it talking, so that people really understand how fish move from the coast.”
Part of the initiative involves building a better website where the consumer can get information based on a tag that would be put on fish by the boat that catches them.
Loucks said they also hope to have a lot number attached to each product so that consumers can also see the processing company that their purchase moved through.
“It’s in a very pilot, preliminary phase right now and we’re learning as we go,” Loucks added.
Eventually the project with shift toward a marketing focus with the intention of making known the “whole cost” of each coastal product.
Ecotrust’s mandate is to implement what they call a conservation economy that would have the outcome of all transactions take into account ecological and social costs as well as financial.
“In any transaction, we’re looking for sustainability, we’re looking for benefits back to the community that are investing in the activity and we’re looking for something that is long-term, not a quick buck,” Loucks explained.
Loucks will continue to work on developing the initiative this summer by interviewing local fishermen and capturing video footage of fishing vessels.
“There is a unique story to tell on the West Coast,” she said.
Ecotrust also recently received written support from Tofino council to assist in their application for further funding from the Island Coastal Economic Trust.
“It’s hard to answer the question of how much this will cost because we are rolling the program forward as we learn,” Loucks said.
But, she added that they are co-applying with the Area G Troll Association for about $50,000, as the next step in their ongoing project.
Seafood traceability programs like SeaChoice, a joint initiative between environmental organizations like the David Suzuki Foundation and the Living Oceans Society, have gained momentum of late.
Overwaitea Food Group announced its collaboration with SeaChoice last week to create a sustainability plan for the sourcing and sale of seafood in its stores that includes being transparent about the seafood they sell and educating consumers about sustainable choices.
