Carrefour: Sustainability Information On Fish Requires Action Retail Business ff

By Atuna

Almost three quarters of the fish consumers in the European Union think that the information on whether fish products come from well managed and sustainable sources is far from adequate. That is the result of a poll that was held by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in 14 EU countries among almost 15.000 adults. According to WWF this problem needs to be addressed not only by the EU-politicians and the industry, but also in the retail sector.

According to the poll, a large majority of Europeans want to buy their fish from sustainable sources. Almost 90 percent of respondents believe that it is important that fish products on-sale within the European Union come from non-overfished stocks. The results of the poll are especially impressive in Southern European countries (Portugal 92%, France 93%, Spain 91%, Italy 95%) and in Belgium (91%) where over 90% of respondents think it is important that fish on-sale comes from non-overfished sustainable stocks.

The problem, though, is that the EU consumers feel they don’t have sufficient information about the source when they buy their fish products on the market. In a comment Stephanie Mathey, Head of Sustainable Development at the Carrefour group, said this needs action in the retail business.  “The poll results clearly show that consumers are keen to know that their consumption of fish is not contributing to overfishing. They need to have better information about the sustainability of the products they buy. This requires policy changes, but also action from the retail sector. Carrefour already tries to inform its clients in a proper way,” she added.

According to WWF, the poll also shows the need for a reform of Europe’s Common Fisheries Policy  (CFP) to ensure the sustainability of fish products in future. “Europeans are clearly fed up with the disastrous management of our fisheries. They want the EU to turn the trend of overfishing  around and the reform of the CFP offers exactly that opportunity to Members of the European Parliament and to EU Governments.” said Louize Hill, Head of Fisheries and Marine at WWF’s European Policy Office.