The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) [1] is expanding its French team with the aim to open an office in France in autumn 2009. 2,191,000 tons of seafood [2] are sold annually in France and the French market for sustainable seafood is maturing as consumer expectations grow. Seafood sustainability has climbed high on the French agenda due to concerns about overfishing and market demand for sustainable seafood is growing. 

Working in partnership with the seafood industry, the MSC is using its eco-labelling and fishery certification programme to help transform how the world’s seas and oceans are worked, and to influence the choices people make when buying seafood. By choosing MSC-labeled seafood, consumers can reward responsible management and ensure that the seafood industry contributes positively to the health of the oceans. 

The MSC certification and ecolabelling programme is a third-party programme. Independent certifiers carry out assessments of fisheries and businesses against the MSC standards for sustainable fishing and seafood traceability. This ensures MSC certification is robust, credible and meets best practice guidelines for standard-setting organisations as set out by ISEAL and the FAO.

Hubert Carré, Director of the National Committee for Maritime Fisheries and Marine Aquaculture (CNPMEM ) encourages French fisheries to consider ecolabels – be it public or private initiatives. Daniel Lefèvre, President of Regional Committee for Maritime Fisheries and Marine Aquaculture (CRPMEM) of Lower Normandy: "We find the MSC a great tool to demonstrate that our fisheries are sustainably managed and to promote it to our consumers. It is also a way to bring fishermen and other stakeholders together to work on a common project in order to ensure the sustainability of our industry in the long run from an economic, social and environmental perspective".

Fifty-seven MSC-labelled seafood products are currently distributed in France and interest continues to grow. An increasing number of French retailers are adding MSC-certified product lines with Casino and Carrefour leading the way. The Saint Etienne-based retailer, Casino, began to offer MSC-certified seafood in October 2007 and is now selling 18 MSC-labelled products. In response to the high demand of sustainable seafood, Carrefour is offering 11 MSC-labelled products.

Matthieu LAMBEAUX, Managing Director of Findus France said: "Consumers are worried about overfishing but many don't know what to do about it. At Findus, we want to help them make the best environmental choice in seafood. That's why we have been promoting the MSC eco-label to our customers from the very beginning. We are committed to widening our range of MSC-labelled products in 2009. I'm absolutely convinced that in 12 months' time, the MSC ecolabel will become more and more popular and that an increasing number of companies will offer MSC labelled products.”

Following the success of its MSC products in its export markets, Chancerelle, the third largest French canned food processing company, is just about to launch its first MSC-labelled products as part of its Connétable range in France.

Nicolas Guichoux, Regional Director – Europe said: "I'm delighted to welcome Edouard Le Bart and Anyes Estay on board of the MSC. The MSC first started its expansion in Northern Europe and in German-speaking countries. France is now a priority for the MSC. Our expanded team will enable us to better service a growing interest from all stakeholders and raise awareness of the MSC ecolabel with the French public." Edouard and Anyes will work jointly to further boost interest in the MSC programme in France.  

The MSC's French team can be contacted at:
Marine Stewardship Council
3rd floor, Mountbarrow House
6-20 Elizabeth Street
London SW1W 9RB
UK

Edouard Le Bart
Commercial Manager - France
edouard.lebart@msc.org
+44 20 7811 3332
Anyes Estay
Communications Officer
anyes.estay@msc.org
+44 20 7811 3314

ENDS

Notes to Editors

[1] The MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) 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 program 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.

The MSC has offices in London, Seattle, Tokyo, Sydney, The Hague, Edinburgh and Berlin.  In total, more than 120 fisheries are engaged in the MSC program with 35 certified, 80 under assessment and another 20 to 30 in confidential pre-assessment. Together the fisheries record annual catches of more than 5 million tons of seafood. Of fish for human consumption, they represent more than 42 percent of the world’s wild salmon catch, 42 percent of the world’s prime whitefish catch and 18 percent of the world’s lobster catch.  Worldwide, more than 1,800 seafood products resulting from the certified fisheries bear the blue MSC eco-label. For more information, please visit www.msc.org

[2] This figure was taken from the Ofimer's "Les Chiffres Clés de la filière pêche et aquaculture en France –Edition 2008".

[3] FAO guidelines can be downloaded from ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/008/a0116t/a0116t00.pdf

[4] The ISEAL Code of Good Practice for Setting Social and Environmental Standards is available to download in full along with case studies from organisations in compliance at www.isealalliance.org/code.