The first formal social accountability standards training for the tuna processing industry was conducted in Port Moresby earlier this month from 3-6 October 2012.
This training course and workshop, builds on previous support to industry in assessment of existing standards in each processing plant. The course covered diagnosis and implementation of the SAI SA8000 Standard for Social Accountability, ETI ethical trading initiative, ISO 26000 Guidelines on Corporate Social Responsibility, and SMETA, which is a tool for social accountability auditing.
Participants to the training
These international standards schemes are universally accepted as the highest and most comprehensive of all such schemes currently available internationally, with few processors holding these high standards globally.
The course and workshop and examinations were delivered by a trainer from UK company Just Solutions with funding/sponsored by the Devfish program of the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) in association with the PNAO, Pacifical, and the PNG National Fisheries Authority. The 16 Participants were from major tuna processors and interested parties including SSTC, Frabelle, IFC, Majestic, with National Fisheries Authority, PNA, Pacifical and WWF [PNG] also attending. These companies represent leaders of the tuna fishing and processing sectors in this region.
Participants reviewed their progress to date, learned how to implement the standards into their respective company policy and procedures; how to conduct internal self assessments, and how to ensure company compliance to the standards and national laws in order to succeed in the challenge of achieving this highest standard of Certification.
Upon graduating on Saturday afternoon, the participants set themselves a target of Social Accountability certification by June 2013. Social accountability accreditation in the regions industry, further puts the region ahead of the global trade and compliments the MSC accreditation of the free school skipjack tuna fishery, attained December 2011. This is accepted as the highest standard for sustainable wild capture fisheries, and verifiable through traceability throughout the Chain of Custody from the net to the plate.
Maurice Brownjohn, commercial manager PNA, said: “Whilst MSC certification for the PNA free school fishery for skipjack tuna is a world first, I am only aware of one other tuna processing plant globally with SA8000 certification, and I am confident that Pacific facilities whose staff have done the training will join this elite group.†“Once MSC Certified PNA/Pacifical free school skipjack tuna achieves SA8000 accreditation, it will mean that customers will be able to purchase our tuna knowing that these products are both certified as sustainable and socially accountable by the world’s best standards.â€
