In May, Scarborough-based Hannaford Supermarkets announced a sweeping sustainability policy for all seafood products it sells, the culmination of more than three years of research and prep work. The policy applies to more than 2,500 products, including fresh seafood, and frozen, packaged and canned items in which the main ingredient is seafood.
As of March 31, the company now traces each product through the supply chain to its source and gathers information to ensure the fishery or farm is meeting certain criteria. Hannaford's 150 suppliers are required to demonstrate that they are harvesting seafood from fisheries governed by science-based management plans.
According to the company, dozens of suppliers have altered their harvesting practices, launched improvement projects and/or beefed up their documentation processes in order to comply with the policy. But, if a supplier can't prove a product's sustainability, it's removed from the shelves. More than 50 products, including mackerel, clam, tuna and crabmeat items, have been replaced with sustainable options.
Citing a United Nations statistic that 80% of the world's wild fisheries are overfished or stressed, George Parmenter, sustainability manager for Hannaford, says the company was focused not only on environmental sustainability, but business sustainability. "There were definitely issues that we couldn't ignore," he says. "As a seller of seafood, we wanted to stay in business and be able to sell seafood long into the future."
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