Japanese MSC products reach 100

Tokyo – 28th April 2008 - The 100th Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)[1] eco-labeled fish product in Japanese stores is announced this week.  80g packs of smoked salmon from the Alaska salmon fishery is now on sale at CO-OP NET [2] stores. CO-OP NET is supplied by Matsuoka Suisan [3].

The 100th product comes during a period of un-paralleled growth in MSC eco-labeled product lines in Japan. The first product in Japan was launched in July 2006. In October 2007 the number of products doubled overnight to 32.  In response to the rapidly-growing interest from Japanese consumers, fisheries and retailers, the MSC opened its first Japanese office in Tokyo in May 2007 appointing Kozo Ishii as Programme Director for Japan.

Rupert Howes, Chief Executive of the MSC says “This is great news. I’m delighted to see the interest in MSC eco-labelling taking of so well in Japan. Strong and growing interest from Japanese retailers and consumers provides tremendous opportunities for the growing number of MSC certified fisheries. Estimates suggest that up to 20% of Japanese fish imports are from fisheries either certified under the MSC standard or fisheries currently in assessment.”

Mr. Masahiro Uchida from CO-OP NET says: “We would like to promote the MSC to consumers and CO-OP members as a new approach on environmental protection and to support sustainable fisheries.  To do so, we will disseminate information on the MSC to make consumers easily understand the meaning of the MSC logo. ”

Mr. Hiroyuki Kamosaku from Matsuoka Suisan says: “As a company with MSC Chain of Custody [4] certification, we would like to contribute to conserving fishery resources and the ocean environment by supplying sustainable seafood products.”

Kozo Ishii, MSC’s Programme Director for Japan, says: “Since the opening of the MSC Japan office, the number of the MSC labelled products has increased about seven times in nearly one year.  In addition to general merchandise stores, several food supermarkets have launched MSC-labelled products recently and some department stores have plans to start selling the MSC-labelled products.  Therefore, I predict that the number will further increase in Japan. The fisheries under assessment for MSC certification such as such as Norwegian mackerel, Alaska flatfish, and Canadian and West Greenland shrimp fisheries include fisheries from which Japan imports a significant volume of seafood. If these fisheries are certified, I believe that MSC labelled products will dramatically increase in Japan. ”

Notes to Editors:

MSC in Japan:
- 20 companies in Japan have been certified for processing seafood from fisheries that meet the MSC environmental standard.
- The first MSC-labelled seafood products were launched at National Azabu in July 2006, and Aeon, one of the largest retailers in Japan launched 11 products in November 2006.
- The Kyoto Danish Seine Fishery Federation (KDSFF) snow crab and flathead flounder fishery entered the assessment process for MSC certification in February 2005.

[1] Marine Stewardship Council (MSC): The MSC is an international non-profit organisation that was set up in 1997 to promote solutions to the problem of overfishing. The MSC runs the only widely recognised environmental certification and eco-labelling programme for wild capture fisheries. It is the only seafood eco-label that is consistent with the ISEAL Code of Good Practice for Setting Social and Environmental Standards and UN FAO guidelines for fisheries certification. The FAO ‘Guidelines for the Eco-labelling of Fish and Fishery Products from Marine Capture Fisheries’, require that credible fishery certification and eco-labelling schemes include:
- Objective, third-party fishery assessment utilising scientific evidence;
- Transparent processes with built-in stakeholder consultation and objection procedures;
- Standards based on the sustainability of target species, ecosystems and management practices.
MSC has offices in London, Seattle, Tokyo, Sydney, The Hague and Edinburgh. In total, over 90 fisheries are engaged in the MSC programme with 26 certified, 73 under assessment and another 20 to 30 in confidential pre-assessment. Together the fisheries record annual catches of over 5 million tonnes of seafood. They represent over 42 percent of the world’s wild salmon catch, 40 percent of the world’s prime whitefish catch, and 18 percent of the world’s lobster catches for human consumption. Worldwide, over 1,000 seafood products resulting from the certified fisheries bear the blue MSC eco-label. For more information, please visit www.msc.org

[2] CO-OP NET: for more information please visit http://www.coopnet.jp/

[3] Matsuoka Suisan: for more information please visit http://www.tcs-net.ne.jp/~matsuoka/

[4] MSC Chain of Custody: MSC chain of Custody is a certification programme that ensures that fish sold with the MSC eco-label can be traced from the ocean to the plate. Every link in the supply chain is certified by independently accredited, 3rd party certifiers so that customers can be sure that the MSC eco-labelled fish they are buying comes from a certified sustainable fishery.