reLAKSation 315. Callander McDowell
Confused – 1: According to Seafoodintelligence.com, Mr Peter Hajipieris, Group Policy Manger for Seafood at Tesco spoke at the recent World Seafood Congress in Dublin on the ‘Challenges of Sustainability’. He told delegates that Tesco adheres to seafood sustainability principles for wild fish based on the FAO Code of Conduct and MSC certification, whilst for all other areas, the work is ongoing and in progress. He added that people forget how damn hard the fisheries industry has worked over the last fifteen years towards the challenges of sustainability but he also had found that there was a dramatic lack of knowledge in the supply side of the industry in terms of sustainability. However, we, at Callander McDowell, would hope that as Group Policy Manager, Mr Hajipieris would be better informed than most but it doesn’t seem to be so.
Mr Hajipieris told the conference that Tesco stocks MSC sustainable products, something of which they are very proud but other products are not as clear about their sustainable credentials. He showed delegates a slide of ‘No Catch’ cod and said that whilst it carried the Soil Association logo on the pack, which is very good, “it doesn’t mean that it is sustainable….”
We are left wondering if Mr Hajipieris knows anything about ‘No Catch’ cod or even his company’s position on whether it is sustainable or not. Mr Hajipieris appears to believe it is not, even though ‘No Catch’ would vehemently disagree. It is only necessary to look at the ‘No Catch’ pack to see that they believe that their cod is sustainable as they clearly put on the label ‘Sustainable Organic Cod’. If Tesco did not agree that the cod is sustainable, then surely they would have either asked for the label to be changed or they would have refused to stock the cod at all.
Whilst the label is ‘No Catch’s’ responsibility, Tesco’s advertising is not. Tesco heavily advertised the arrival of ‘No Catch’ cod to their stores. The print advert clearly states … and fully sustainable, which leaves little room for misunderstanding. Tesco’s advertising poster left even less to the imagination claiming ‘It saves the planet’. If these are not examples of a sustainable product, then what is?
And just in case the confusion is just over ‘No Catch ‘ cod, then Tesco’s also sell Findus frozen farmed cod which too loudly claims its sustainability on its packaging.
No doubt for Mr Hajipieris’s confusion is that ‘No Catch’ cod, like the Findus cod, is farmed and as yet, the sustainability movement have refused to accept that farmed fish are sustainable. This is because the whole sustainability movement is underwritten by the WWF and they still have such a negative view of the aquaculture industry that they have written off aquaculture products as unsustainable. However, the increasing importance of farmed fish and seafood to the global marketplace has caused the WWF to reconsider this view and as a result, they are starting to take the first tentative steps towards the consideration of farmed produce as being sustainable.
Yet, it is the market, not the environmental groups that should be dictating the issue of sustainability. It is up to supermarkets like Tesco to recognise what is sustainable and what is not. Whilst Tesco’s policy makers like Mr Hajipieris seem unable to make up their minds, it does seem that the buyers have and well done to them for doing so.
Confused – 2: According to the Seafood Week website, the supermarket chain Morrison’s was to distribute ‘Have you tried’ booklets from their fish counters encouraging customers to sample alternative more sustainable species, with recipe ideas and top tips. We don’t know about a ‘Have you tried’ booklet but stores did display one entitled ‘Fabulous Fish’ which we found to be an interesting, if not a confusing read.
We were especially drawn to ‘Cooking up a Feast’, the recipe page. The booklet states that the dishes all use fresh fish from Marine Stewardship Council approved sources and they are only stocked when they are in season. The six recipes include:
Spiced mackerel fillets with potato and yogurt salad – The MSC have certified mackerel from the south west of England which makes this dish sustainable.
Cape Hake baked with tomato, olives and parsley – The MSC have certified Cape Hake from South Africa which makes this dish sustainable too.
Deep fried cod goujons with lemon & caper mayonnaise – The MSC have certified Pacific cod from Alaska, however Morrison’s do not sell Pacific cod so if the fish is bought from a Morrison’s store it is definitely not sustainable.
Tilapia Teriyaki – Tilapia are farmed and therefore not eligible for MSC certification so are not sustainable.
Pan fried Barramundi with herby mustard sauce - Barramundi are farmed and therefore are also not eligible for MSC certification and are also not sustainable.
Moules Mariniere – Mussels are also farmed and therefore not sustainable.
So out of six recipes claiming to use MSC approved fish, only two actually do so and three of the remaining include farmed produce that isn’t recognised as sustainable by the MSC. However, Morrison’s appear to have adopted a different take on sustainability than that offered by the MSC. The booklet asks whether readers know that Morrison’s now stock over 50 species of fish, all from sustainable sources. This is many more than the MSC have certified, so clearly Morrison’s have a much wider view of sustainability. The booklet provides the following clarification: An eco friendly choice – Our wide selection of fish is continuously assessed and gives you oceans of choice. It includes Scottish salmon, pole and line caught tuna from Sri Lanka and unusual alternatives such as tilapia and gurnard. At Morrisons, we believe in conserving the world’s fish stocks for future generations to enjoy. That’s why the MSC has accredited all our fresh fish counters!!
Thus, supermarkets are able to claim sustainability for their fish including farmed species through MSC accreditation. Other supermarkets have also followed suit as we have previously discussed and why not. After all, farmed fish are the most sustainable of any fish because they can be managed to meet growing demand.
Unfortunately, not everyone has the same open mind to sustainability. This week Intrafish report that UK sandwich chain Pret a Manger is changing the salmon used in its sandwiches from farmed to MSC certified wild Alaskan chum salmon. Pret a Manger say that they are constantly reviewing its raw material with an eye towards sustainability. Pity the Pret a Manger customers who will now find that their favourite salmon sandwich contains cheap chum salmon instead of the previous tasty Scottish version.
Confused - 3. In the past few days, a press release has been removed from the Seafood Week website, although not from that of Seafish. The press release, timed to coincide with the start of Seafood Week, revealed new research about fish consumption in the UK. The research showed amongst other positive trends that consumption of oil rich species full of omega 3 fatty acids has risen by 10% since 2004. However, despite the positive trends, only 28% of people overall eat fish twice a week as recommended by the Food Standards Agency.
That only twenty eight percent of people eat fish twice a week is not particularly encouraging especially given that the twice a week message has been the underlying theme of this and previous Seafood Week promotions. Perhaps the message has not been getting through.
This year, it seems that everything has changed. Whilst at the start of the Seafood Week promotion, less than a third of consumers ate fish twice a week, by end of the week; this figure had miraculously risen to over two thirds of the population.
Seafood.com reported that new research published in the Daily Express and other British newspapers has shown that two out of three people now eat fish twice a week. The research was conducted on behalf of Nobilo Wines as part of their Seafood Week promotion. Could this new research be the reason why Seafish have made their own Seafood Week research disappear? We wouldn’t be at all surprised.
However, we wouldn’t read too much into this latest research even though they polled 4000 consumers, all of whom were wine drinkers. The research found that most wine drinkers prefer to cook fish at home with only one in five popping out to the chip shop for their supper, something which we, at Callander McDowell do not think is that surprising. Regular wine drinkers probably have a higher income and are more interested in the food they eat. It is likely that the higher number eating fish twice a week is skewed towards those that shop in the top end supermarkets which we know sell a greater proportion of fish than others. Still, the results are encouraging enough to ensure that the other findings vanish.
More interestingly, the survey also produced a top ten of favourite fish, which gave the popular press their headlines for this story. Salmon, it seems is for the first time, more popular than cod with salmon polling 42% of respondents compared to 37% who prefer cod. The full list is as follows:
According to Seafish, sales of salmon have risen from £385m in 2005 to £432m this year compared to £368m for cod. However the volume of cod sold 63,000 tonnes still exceeds salmon at 46,000 tonnes. The discrepancy is probably due to the amount of cod sold frozen in breaded and battered form.
A more accurate picture was provided by Edward Garner of TNS when he spoke at the recent Added Value Seafood conference. He looked specifically at chilled fish sales and this provides a different picture. What is most apparent is that salmon has outperformed cod for the last three years confirming that salmon has been top of the table for some years and if the Nobilo research had been conducted before now, it would have shown that this is not the first time that salmon has been the most popular fish in the UK.
The value share of chilled fish is shown as follows:
Salmon 29.7%
Prawns 14.6%
Haddock 11.2%
Cod 10.5%
Mackerel 4.4%
Trout 3.1%
Tuna 2.9%
Plaice 2.6%
Sole 2.0%
White fish 1.3%
Kippers 1.2%
Mussels 1.1%
Seabass 0.9%
Others 14.5%
Whilst, value doesn’t really provide an accurate picture of sales since values are so different between species, it does give an indication of popularity and salmon is top in both. Whilst Seafish suggest that sales of salmon continue to rise, TNS actually show that the total sales value has fallen this year probably reflecting the higher price of salmon and a corresponding drop in demand. When prices eventually fall, this drop in sales can be turned around.
Interesting, this news of salmon’s popularity comes just as the Fisheries Research Services release 2006 production data for Scottish fish farms. Although there was no fanfare, production has increased by 2% to 131,847 and is forecast to increase further to 142,556 this year. It's not surprising that a lot of the salmon consumed in the UK is now of Norwegian origin.