COLUMN: Selling the Sustainability of Seafood
Sustainability has been around for quite a while in the seafood sector, but the actions of some organizations are helping it to become more prevalent than ever among food retailers.
A Time to Celebrate
One of those organizations, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), a nonprofit whose mission is to end overfishing and ensure that seafood is fished sustainably through such methods as its Chain of Custody certification, was on site in Boston at the recent Seafood Expo North America, where I caught up with Kristen Stevens, senior marketing manager, U.S., and Laura McDearis, senior market manager, U.S., to talk about what they’re doing to fulfill that mission.
Building on the success of the retailer kits it released last year, MSC has come out with a 2025 edition. “We’re launching it first with independent retailers,” explained Stevens. “Smaller retailers, we know that they’re kind of hungry for these resources to help promote the products they already have on shelves.”
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Both Stevens and McDearis were buoyed by recent MSC research showing that consumers are increasingly prioritizing sustainable seafood. “The fact that sustainability has risen to the top – right after you have a good product, the next thing [they] care about is sustainability – that’s huge,” noted McDearis.
“It’s also something that retailers can celebrate,” added Stevens. “I’ve been in a lot of sessions [during the expo] … about how concerned consumers are with how expensive seafood is and how that’s their biggest barrier. But the other one that’s coming up is the concern for sustainability. … I would actually say all retailers have some sustainable seafood on their shelves, so promoting what they’ve already got, celebrating that, helping make it easy for consumers to choose sustainable and feel good about choosing seafood” are all good strategies.
Building Awareness
Meanwhile, MSC’s boothmate at the expo, the nonprofit Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), is continuing to work on establishing protocols for sustainably farmed seafood, as well as getting the word out about these products.
“We are in the midst of a multiyear campaign in North America to build consumer awareness and also support our partners who are certified and using the ASC label and running things responsibly when it comes to farm production, and retail is something we’re really leaning into this year, both in person and for digital activations,” noted Athena Davis, ASC’s marketing manager, North America.
Like MSC, ASC has made working with local and regional grocers a focus. “We have a strategy to work with smaller, more independent retailers at this point in time through our campaign, specifically because I think that they are really open to interesting new products and testing them out a little bit more, where a larger retailer may want something a little bit more traditional,” observed Davis. “With some of the smaller companies and ASC-certified producers, we’re expanding into more species than just shrimp and salmon in terms of our consumer builds.”
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The organization’s work has begun to pay off in terms of shopper awareness. “We found that in North America, including the U.S. and Canada, ASC is the most recognized farmed-seafood label over any other farmed-seafood certification, and in some cases over other eco label certifications,” said Davis.
She admitted, however, that there’s still work to be done, noting that while two-thirds of consumers surveyed by ASC in North America said that sustainability is important to them when shopping for seafood, only 1% of people consider sustainability when making shopping decisions at the point of purchase. “For us, being able to build awareness and meaning behind this, it actually makes this a perfect prompt for people, to kind of remind them when they’re there,” asserted Davis. “We know they’re interested in it, but when they’re not looking at this and that and the other thing on the package, how do [they] decide? We see that as a motivator.”
