Walmart and Safeway Expand Sustainable Seafood Policies

SHARE:

Email

Print

LinkedIn

Facebook

Twitter

March 29, 2011

Walmart Stores Inc. and its Sam's Club subsidiary, as well as Safeway, recently announced expansion of their seafood sustainability policies.

Walmart now requires that all of its wild and farmed seafood will be sourced from a third-party certified by the Marine Stewardship Council or the Global Aquaculture Alliance’s Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP), or by equivalent standards. Previously this requirement only applied to wild caught seafood.

The mass retailers also adopted a policy of accepting equivalent certifications that fully meet the Food and Agriculture Organization’s standard for responsible fisheries. Walmart’s new standards are expected to be in place by June 2012.

Meanwhile Safeway’s seafood policy vows to be not only sustainable, but also traceable by 2015, according to a report in SeafoodSource.com

“Safeway has been working on sustainable seafood for several years, but due to the complexity, we needed an outside resource to design a program tailored to our needs,” said Phil Gibson, group director of seafood for Safeway during a seminar at the recent International Boston Seafood Show. “We partnered with FishWise because they balance bottom-line concerns with a real commitment to ocean conservation.”

Gibson added that the grocer selected FishWise as a partner because the organization is “focused on business and solutions, not an agenda.”

Safeway collaborates with numerous non-governmental organizations such as Sustainable Fisheries Partnership of Seattle and the World Wildlife Fund’s Aquaculture Dialogues.

“With a company of our size, we know our 2015 commitment is ambitious,” said Gibson. “But, we also know that it is important. For us, the key is to think big and to collaborate with groups that share our vision of a sustainable seafood industry. Kids probably aren’t thinking much about seafood now, but they will when they grow up, and we want them to be able to enjoy healthy sustainable seafood just like we have.”

Read These Related Articles:

• Fresh & Easy Launches Offbeat Private Label Snack and Cooking Sauces
• Cargill Ground Beef Promotion Aims to “Soup Up” Private Label Sales for Retailers
• Spartan Stores Plans Private Label Expansion
• Kroger and Walmart Store Brands Affected by Frozen Vegetable Recall
• Kroger Relaunches Its Private Selection Brand

Most Read

Guest Columns

Grocery Aisle Innovation Key to Retailer and Consumer Cost Savings

Retailers are redesigning the aisle, appealing to environmentally friendly consumers and capitalizing on market trends to make their private label brands more competitive.

Source: Tetra Pak Inc.

How to Develop a Private Label Expression Aligned with Retail Brand Strategy

By creating private label as a marketing tool rather than just a price alternative, retailers gain the opportunity to tell a complete brand story while simultaneously boosting customer loyalty.

Source: CBX

Using the Store Banner to Endorse Private Label Architecture

Although the economic downturn accelerated private label growth in Europe, there was another key driver -- retailers started to brand their stores.

Source: IPLC

See All Guest Columns »

Press Releases