Increasing traceability and transparency in seafood sales and trade were key issues at SENA

Three SeaChoice representatives attended this year’s Seafood Expo North America (SENA) in Boston, along with thousands of seafood producers, processors, distributors, marketers, and conservation organizations. With companies from 57 different countries, walking around the expo floor was like a world tour of seafood, highlighting how global (and globally traded) these products are. Canada, whose seafood exports rose 5% last year to reach $6.9 billion (DFO News release), was well represented with exhibitors from British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. For more information on the sustainability of Canada’s seafood trade, click here.

Growing along with the continual increase in global seafood trade is the development of new tools and technologies to increase the traceability of seafood – ways to track products as they make their way from the harvesters to the end consumer. From conference sessions on best practices to avoid seafood fraud to new toolkits for the seafood industry, it was clear that traceability is increasingly recognized as a necessary component of sustainable seafood.

Traceability is also necessary so that seafood can be labelled accurately with the information consumers need to help them make sustainable choices. However, in Canada, the legal requirements for seafood labelling are some of the lowest in the developed world, with only a common name required for seafood that is produced in Canada, and common name and ‘country of last major transformation’ for imported seafood. SeaChoice is working to raise this bar.