Tesco: We Need Harder, Faster Progress from Aquaculture

If seafood is to realize its full potential as a global food\r\nsecurity solution – providing healthy, sustainable, and affordable protein and\r\nmeeting shifting consumer expectations, then the aquaculture sector must\r\naccelerate its progress hard and fast. That’s the message from one of the\r\nU.K.'s leading retailers, delivered at the North Atlantic Seafood Forum (NASF)\r\n2020 by Tesco Responsible Sourcing Director Giles Bolton.

Addressing delegates at the business conference in Bergen,\r\nNorway, Bolton said the food industry has to change, as too much of it is\r\nunsustainable.

“When you look at the future of our planet, so much of the\r\nfood industry as a whole is at the heart of the crisis. Already the food sector\r\nis the second-biggest contributor to climate change, and because of the\r\nadvances of renewable energy, we will become the biggest contributor by 2040.\r\nCurrent estimates also suggest the food industry currently contributes around\r\n60 percent of global biodiversity loss, which has a similar domino impact to\r\nclimate change that we really don’t understand," Bolton said. “If we\r\nare going to change then it has to be really significant. And we know the\r\nkickers already, which is that we are unsustainably using those resources at\r\nthe moment, but with the growth in population through to 2050 and based on the\r\ncurrent production models, we have to produce maybe 50 to 70 percent more food\r\nin terms of basic vegetable and grain production. And that’s a very\r\nintimidating challenge.”

Recognizing this “fundamental need to change” and to get on\r\nthe “front foot” with its ambition to reduce the environmental impact of the\r\naverage U.K. shopping basket by 50 percent, Tesco has come up with three\r\n“levers of change,” explained Bolton. These are: How much diets need to change\r\nand how does it support customers that want to shift their diets; how it works\r\ncollectively to improve supply; and how does it eliminate as much waste as\r\npossible.

With regard to fisheries and seafood, he said this has\r\ntranslated into a number of targets and measures, including sustainably\r\nsourcing all wild fish and having a zero-tolerance policy to illegal,\r\nunreported, and unregulated fishing (IUU), ensuring all seafood can be traced\r\nback to its source, that it doesn’t sell any species that appear as\r\n“endangered” or “critically endangered” on the IUCN Red List of Threatened\r\nSpecies, reducing the average forage fish dependency ratios among its salmon\r\nsuppliers, while also focusing on the most serious threats to workers\r\nthroughout its supply chains.

The retailer’s approach also follows three key elements:\r\nimprove through incremental change; transform through innovation; and advocate\r\nthrough stakeholder collaboration.

“We are proud of some of the progress we have made. Tesco\r\nhas come a long way in the last five years," Bolton said. "We want to\r\nbe a responsible partner for the seafood sector because it’s a vital part of\r\nthe support we want to give to our customers to eat healthily and sustainably\r\nin the future.”

Bolton told NASF delegates he believes there’s considerable\r\nopportunity for the industry within the general health advice to eat one or\r\ntwo 200-gram portions of seafood each week, including one oily fish.

“When I look at the challenge for the world, I can’t look at\r\nmuch of the meat sector – solutions are not going to come from there. I can\r\nlook at part of the fruit, vegetable, and grains industries, but for protein\r\nthe opportunity for seafood is enormous, particularly for aquaculture. But it’s\r\nnot on track," he said. “That’s not to say that there aren’t\r\nfantastic efforts going on, but not to the scale needed when you look at how\r\nthe world is changing. From our point of view, our ability to get sustainable,\r\naffordable, healthy proteins to our customers is going to require a significant\r\nincrease in production. And we don’t think there is anything like the level of\r\ninnovation and progress needed yet."

"We really want you to get there," Bolton added.

Bolton also said he believes that aquaculture needs to raise\r\nits consumer profile if it is to capitalize on this “really, really big\r\nopportunity.”

“Customers expect 100 percent sustainability and I think we\r\nare vulnerable in this industry. We have a very big public debate about the\r\nsustainability of our wild fish species, yet we are also producing lots of\r\nfarmed fish which doesn’t really operate to the same level of standards,"\r\nhe said. "That could undermine [aquaculture’s] reputation. And while\r\nthere’s a lot of progress being made to try and address this, I do think there\r\nis a problem if we can’t go faster.”

Through its aim to see less pressure put on reduction\r\nfisheries to supply traditional marine raw materials like fishmeal and fish\r\noil, the retailer is supportive of alternative feed ingredients like insect\r\nmeal and algal oil being used in aquaculture. In the second half of 2019, it\r\nbegan revising its farmed salmon standards with targets focused on lowering the\r\namount of wild-caught fish used in feeds. This has led to closer work with\r\nfarmers and feed developers to support the scale-up of more sustainable\r\ningredients.

“Algal oil is a brilliant example of a step change in\r\ninnovation. It can really drive business as a genuinely sustainable feed\r\nsource, and it is fantastic to see a number of our producers start to\r\nexperiment with it. The question is can we go harder and faster – how do we\r\nreally scale this up?" Bolton said. "We also see that insect protein\r\nas a component of feed actually has much more potential and can grow quicker in\r\naquaculture than in the meat sector, where it’s proving more difficult to make\r\nthat technology work at the moment."

Seafood, Bolton said, could take inspiration from other\r\nareas of food production that find ways to use innovation to make jumps in\r\nproduction. 

“What we see in different areas of food production way\r\noutside of seafood is the hardest part to proving an innovation works is to\r\nmake that jump. It’s a really big challenge and it takes bravery," he\r\nsaid. "But you nearly always find that those businesses who are at the\r\nforefront are the strongest in the long-term because of their understanding of\r\nthe opportunities and the work that’s gone in to figuring out of how to make it\r\nwork. I don’t see that seafood should be any different."

That need for seafood to make those step changes also means\r\nthat there is plenty of opportunity, he added. 

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“As an industry that’s ready to work together to make\r\nchange, and to be at the very forefront of things, it’s a very exciting time\r\nfor seafood – with a massive opportunity," Bolton said.  "We\r\nknow at Tesco, we have a role in being part of that."

Source : Seafood Source