Callander McDowell
Callander McDowell
reLAKSation no 426
Yes or no?: Writing in an IntraFish editorial, Tom Seaman asks whether the Marine Stewardship can win over consumers. This follows the announcement that the MSC are to join with UK supermarket chain Sainsbury’s in the largest ever consumer awareness programme to promote the blue tick eco-label. By the end of the year 500 stores will have point of sales material, posters, recipe cards and shelf edge labels featuring designs from Saatchi and Saatchi.
The aim of the campaign is to increase understanding of sustainable fishing among UK consumers and raise the profile of the label with shoppers. Sainsbury’s was the first supermarket to use the MSC label in 2000 and now has a range of 65 MSC certified own-label products, the largest range in the UK. Sainsbury’s has seen sales of sustainable fish and seafood triple in 2008 with customers buying more sustainable seafood than ever.
Tom Seaman writes that ‘it’s hard to see how this won’t massively boost the profile of the MSC from something retailers endorse, but few consumers truly understand, into something much more’ but we at Callander McDowell, are not convinced. This is because we think that this campaign will simply add to consumer confusion rather than aid clarification.
The main problem is that the inevitable implication of linking MSC certification with sustainability is that non-certified fish are not sustainable. The logical question is that if MSC certification is a clear guarantee that the fish are sustainable, then why would a retailer that is committed to selling only sustainable fish, offer consumers fish that are not MSC certified? After all, if the fish is not certified then there is no assurance it is sustainable and thus it surely must be questionable as to whether it should be offered for sale.
This new collaboration would be much more credible if Sainsbury’s were to remove all non-certified fish from its shelves. This would underscore its commitment to selling only sustainable fish but, of course, this is unlikely to happen as it would be akin to committing commercial suicide. Instead, Sainsbury’s have adopted a fall back policy. This entails their own traffic light sustainability rating system for fish species which are not MSC certified. According to their Corporate Responsibility Report, Sainsbury’s developed the rating in 2006 in consultation with the MCS, suppliers, campaigners and industry experts. It is based on the health of the fish stock, how well the fishery is managed and the impact of fishing on the environment. The ratings are:
Green – scientifically verified to be in plentiful supply.
Amber – concerns about sustainability but action is being taken.
Red – major concerns about sustainability so not offered for sale.
Sainsbury’s do not sell any red rated fish and are actively working to convert any amber rated fish to green. Sainsbury’s customers are not made aware of which fish are green rated and which are amber. Instead, they trust Sainsbury’s to sell fish which are sustainably sourced. When we say trust, the probability is that most customers don’t even give it a thought. Instead it is one of the unwritten commitments in the relationship between retailer and their customers. This is why most consumers don’t give much thought to the issue of sustainability. They prefer to leave it to their retailer to make the right choices on their behalf.
If Sainsbury’s and their customers trust their own rating system, then there seems little point in promoting sustainability through MSC certification. It is supposed to help consumers make a choice but actually consumers are left with no choice at all. This is because Sainsbury’s have already made a choice.
Sainsbury says that five species make up eighty percent of their fish and seafood sales. These are cod, haddock, salmon, tuna and prawns.
In the case of cod, Sainsbury’s ‘fresh’ cod is not MSC certified. It is however line caught which is a more sustainable method of fishing. Although the fresh and chilled cod is not MSC certified, chilled breaded and battered cod is. This is because these products are made from Pacific cod which is MSC certified. The obvious question is if MSC Pacific cod is acceptable for use in coated products, why has Sainsburys chosen not to offer it as the sustainable option on its fresh counter and in chilled packs? After all, other supermarkets sell Pacific cod from their fish counter. We can only assume that the reason is that the Pacific cod has been previously frozen, coming as it does from the other side of the world. Selling the fish as previously frozen has not been a problem for other supermarkets who have found it an acceptable way of maintaining a continuous supply. Sainsbury’s already do this since the Pacific salmon they sell has also been previously frozen.
There is another option, which is Norwegian MSC certified cod although the packs of this product that we have seen in another retail outlet stated that the cod had also been previously frozen.
Haddock is the other popular white fish sold by Sainsburys. They claim that in 2009 they were the first British supermarket to stock MSC certified haddock. Unfortunately, we have no record of when Sainsbury’s launched their MSC certified haddock but another supermarket had put certified haddock loin on their shelves in March 2009. By comparison, as we have previously discussed in reLAKSation 409, the MSC haddock is smoked, yet their fresh haddock is not!
Back at the beginning of 2008, Sainsburys announced the launch of the first MSC certified tuna. This is Pacific Albacore tuna which is available either in oil or water and packed in jars. However, at least one other supermarket has offered Albacore tuna from its fresh fish counter, although no claim was made about MSC certification. The tuna sold by Sainsbury is line caught Yellowfin.
Finally, the fourth species of fish is salmon. The problem with salmon is that the majority of Sainsbury’s salmon is farmed and therefore not eligible for MSC certification. The implication of promoting the MSC certification as sustainable is that the farmed salmon is not. This will undoubtedly confuse customers although the formation of the Aquaculture Stewardship Council will be offered as a way of demonstrating the sustainability of farmed produce. We wonder whether this will simply add to any consumer confusion.
Meanwhile, Freedom Food accreditation is offered as an immediate solution. Sainsburys says that the environmental impact, health and welfare of farmed fish are some of the concerns about the sustainability of farmed fish but we think that animal welfare is a very different issue to the sustainability of fisheries.
Sainbsurys also says that they are keen to offer alternative species, especially to cod. These include pollock, however, as locally caught pollock, as distinct from Alaskan pollock, is not MSC certified so how can consumers be really sure about its’ sustainable credentials?
Ally Dingwall, Sainsburys fisheries manager told IntraFish that it is encouraging that customers are supporting sustainable fishing by buying MSC fish. However, as we already pointed out, whether this is customer choice is unclear. Certainly, if Sainsbury’s customers want to buy chilled smoked haddock then they must buy MSC certified fish. If they want to buy chilled breaded cod, then they can only buy MSC certified fish. Mr Dingwall added that their approach is to offer MSC wherever they can and whenever it is available. However, it does seem that it is really a case of what best suits.
Sainsbury’s have this week announced that their half year profits have jumped by 18.5%. One of their strategies to boost sales has been the promotion of their own label Basics range of over 550 products. On their website, Sainsbury’s says that a common assumption is that a cheap range is only possible because the products are of low quality. They say that prices are kept low in many different ways. In the case of salmon, the Basics salmon fillets may be of different sizes and could be of slightly different colour. Customers pay only £7.98/kg for Basics salmon as compared with £14.25/kg for the premium Taste the Difference range. Customers can buy other salmon at prices in between, but the best deal is £11.53/kg for skinless & boneless fillets. All Sainsbury’s own label farmed salmon is Freedom Food accredited, irrespective of whether it is used in Basics or Taste the Difference products.
Smoked mackerel is very popular and Sainsbury’s offer a wide choice of plain and flavoured varieties. The premium TTD product sells for £14.99/kg whilst the standard hot smoked product is £7.99/kg (although their home shopping site has the product listed at £7.49/kg). The hot smoked mackerel is MSC certified.
Sainsbury’s also produces a Basics smoked mackerel. The label states that it is ‘still as smoky, just a different cut.’ It costs £7.44/kg however it is not labelled as certified by the MSC, despite being sourced from the same supplier. Could it be that Sainsbury’s have made savings not just by a different cut (which looks little different) but by sourcing from a fishery that is not sustainably certified? Surely, Basics smoked mackerel should be MSC certified or else they shouldn’t be selling it. The fact that it is available at all seems to undermine Sainsbury’s claims about their own sustainable credentials.
These are not the only concerns to arise this week about the MSC eco-labelled fish. The Times published an article which questioned whether MSC certified fisheries are really sustainable. They looked at both the New Zealand Hoki fishery and Alaskan pollock from the other side of the Pacific. The paper asked how these fisheries can be considered sustainable if quotas have to be cut. They say that the response that cuts in quotas are a sign of pre-emptive management are criticised by conservationists who suggest that they illustrate the underlying problems with the science of how stocks are judged to be sustainable.
The Times says that to date, no objections have resulted in a rejected application and only one fishery has been turned down after an assessment had been paid for. The MSC uses independent companies to assess the fisheries which according to the paper, leaves the door open to ‘special arrangements’ between the assessors and the fishing companies. One of the assessors, Moody Marine admitted that as the market has increased, far more enquiries they receive lead to pre-assessment and most lead to full certification.
This week, the questions about the validity of certification became a little murkier as the Scientific and Statistical Committee of the New England Fishery Management Council recommended that the total allowable catch of red crab for 2010 be set at 2007 levels. According to Seafoodnews.com, this was a complete shock for the Atlantic Red Crab Company of New Bedford as they had just received MSC certification saying that the stocks they fished were sustainable. The Fishery Management Council didn’t agree and have imposed a 40% reduction in the catch. Clearly, what local fisheries managers consider to be sustainable is clearly not the same as that of the Marine Stewardship Council. As with all fisheries, the estimation of a sustainable catch seems to be pure guesswork.
The Times also suggested that a new report from the Former National Consumer Council, Consumer Focus, adds criticism of the scheme. In defence of the MSC, this is not what the Consumer Focus report ‘Green to the Core’ actually stated. What it actually said was that the specific information provided by supermarkets is not sufficiently clear enough for consumers to make an informed choice but that MSC helps give a clear indication of sustainable sourcing. They say that supermarkets should also do more to promote other more sustainable, but less well known, fish to consumers encouraging a move away from a reliance on species like cod.
Unfortunately, such a view demonstrates that even those commissioned with the arbitration of how sustainability is measured have little understanding of the various issues of sustainability.
The full report - Green to the Core is available from www.consumerfocus.org.uk/. It looks at sustainability with regard to a number of issues of which sustainable fisheries was just one. However, it is the only one which we will consider here. The assessment was carried out by seven mystery shoppers who visited nine supermarkets in the Manchester area. The mystery shoppers were selected by GfK NOP and were given comprehensive training but when looking at specialist areas such a sustainable fish, some degree of prior knowledge is required. It is not something that can be learned for a one-off study.
We, at Callander McDowell conduct our own survey of the retail sector and visit stores around the country, however as Manchester is our base we have a much better knowledge of our local stores than anywhere else. We have learnt from experience that stores vary considerably with regard to fish, much more than for any other product, which is why we have our own key stores which stock a better representation of fish than the rest. Surprisingly, we cannot offer just one key store as the range varies so much between stores.
The mystery shoppers found it difficult to establish whether supermarkets are selling at risk fish species and the report concludes that they did not find any at risk species available for sale in any of the stores. Most of their focus was trying to identify whether fish such as cod came from Greenland or the West coast of Scotland, stocks of which are threatened or from the Barents or Norwegian Seas where they are not. Under current labelling legislation, supermarkets are only obliged to state the sea area from where the fish were caught such as North East Atlantic. This means that it is impossible to identify the exact stock and why consumers must trust their supermarket to stock only fish which are considered sustainable. The mystery shoppers were too busy looking for fish from at risk stocks that they missed at risk species. We believe that the supermarkets are making efforts to stock only species that are considered sustainable but as we have already suggested, the understanding of what is sustainable and what is not does seem to differ. This study used the Marine Conservation Society fishonline website to identify at risk fish species but they failed to identify at least one species which is clearly on the MCS list of fish to avoid. The MCS give dogfish or rock salmon a 5 rating on their fish to avoid list but currently, it is available from at least one supermarket fish counter in the Manchester area for just £10.99/kg.
The Consumer Focus report states that it used the MCS website to ascertain the sustainability of specific fish species but their recommendations section suggests to supermarkets that they only sell fish included on the MSC fish to eat list and take all other fish off the shelves. It is unclear whether they mean the MSC or the MCS. The MSC have added to the confusion by including a page on their website which they describe as fish-to-eat. If Consumer Focus cannot get it right, what hope is there for the average consumer?
Following their comprehensive training, the mystery shoppers submitted the following ratings to each store on the issue of fish sustainability:
M&S, Sainsbury, Waitrose - A
Lidl, Tesco - C
Asda, Coop, Morrison – D
Aldi No rating
However, we don’t think that this is a fair reflection of the efforts made by each supermarket to stock sustainable fish. This is because they only considered three product groups. These were prepacked fresh fish, frozen fish fingers and tinned tuna. The addition of tinned tuna is somewhat contentious since tins have a very long shelf life and stocks will take time to work through the system. The picture of what is happening to tinned tuna may have already happened but as yet is not reflected in store, especially given the recent impetus from the film ‘The End of the Line’ with its focus on tuna.
The fish finger sector is complex because it is dominated by branded products that initially highlighted the sustainability issue but when sales flagged moved into promotion of the omega 3 fatty acids instead. Own label products have followed this trend in order to remain competitive. It would have been more realistic to consider breaded fish rather than fish fingers.
We would imagine that most of the scoring used to judge each stores comes from measuring prepacked fish. This does not truly reflect the efforts made by each store and can be misleading. For example, Waitrose sell most fresh fish from their fish counter and stock only a limited range of fish in prepacks. M&S only stock a limited range of fish as chilled. These limited ranges give the impression of a high level of compliance especially when compared with those stores that stock a much wider range of fish species. Strangely, the Coop who do seem to make a lot of effort to check sustainability have been penalised because they only stock a limited range. In fact, generally, the Coop is not really the ideal store choice for buying fish. The report said that there was limited availability of fish displaying a sustainable message. Actually, there is just a limited availability.
Asda fish counters tend to have very large signage promoting MSC sustainable fish but this is not reflected by their prepacked fish. By comparison, the MSC logo is apparent on many Sainsbury’s prepacks but the fish counters tend to be lacking. The report criticises Morrison’s for a lack of instore signage but do not take into account that Morrisons pack their own fish in store with labels that are printed as the packs are weighed. These do not give the opportunity to pass on the same sort of message as prepacks with prepinted labels. Morrison’s, have stated their intention to stock MSC certified fish on their website and recently produced a TV commercial extolling their sustainable credentials. However, according to the Times, the advert was pulled because of a complaint that the claims were not substantiated (but does any supermarket really substantiate their own claims). We suspect that this complaint was not instigated by a member of the public.
The Consumer Focus report is very weak in relation to fish sustainability. There is still a long way to go before claims that fish stocks sold in supermarkets are truly sustainable. Promoting the MSC logo in store now is likely to add to the confusion.