sustainable tuna fish

Demand for sustainable fish and shellfish is flying as supermarkets boost their ranges of MSC-certified products. 

Data published by the Marine Stewardship Council this week revealed that UK shoppers spent £403m on MSC-certified sustainable seafood last year (52 w/e 31/03/15), up 16% on the previous 12 months and 30% more than two years ago.

Toby Middleton, programme director for MSC in the UK, attributed the sales growth to improved availability of MSC products, which has “doubled over the last three years thanks to increased commitments from most major supermarkets”, he said.

Consumer awareness of MSC has also improved, with one in four shoppers now recognising the MSC ecolabel, he added.

“As more MSC-certified produce becomes available, both on the high street and in the foodservice sector, we would expect consumer awareness of the label - and consumer demand for MSC certified produce - to continue to grow.”

Mel Groundsell, corporate relations director at Seafish, said price and quality still ranked above sustainability for consumers when choosing seafood.

“In their view, it is the role of the retailer to ensure the seafood they source is responsibly fished, both environmentally and socially, and to meet these expectations through their sourcing policies and supply chain audits,” she said.

She added that retailers and the seafood industry had made “huge progress” in ensuring the majority of seafood sold in the UK is environmentally sustainable.

“The important things for retailers to tackle now are the social issues such as slave labour to ensure we have a truly sustainable seafood supply chain in the UK,” she said.

Most major supermarkets now sell MSC-certified fish and seafood. Sainsbury’s has the most extensive range of MSC-labelled fish and seafood, with Waitrose in second place. 

Lidl has significantly increased its range of MSC-certified products on offer and recently overtook Aldi to become the market leader in the convenience channel.

Lidl this week became the first British supermarket to launch an MSC-certified whole lobster (rsp: £4.99), sourced from fishermen in New Brunswick, Canada, who use small boats and baited traps.

Waitrose has also expanded its range of sustainable shellfish, launching Royal Greenland’s MSC-certified frozen cold water prawns (rsp: £4/200g) in stores this month.