John West Launches Sustainable Seafood Partnership with WWF

MEDIA RELEASE
8 February 2012

John West Launches Sustainable Seafood Partnership with WWF

John West Australia (incorporating John West Australia & New Zealand) has recently announced a new Sustainable Seafood Partnership with the world’s largest conservation organisation, WWF Australia & New Zealand.

The partnership commits John West to WWF’s Global Sustainable Seafood Charter (see notes to editor) and features key milestones for John West to meet throughout its journey to sustainability - including a commitment to ensure that all John West Australia and New Zealand products will be sustainable by 2015.

As the largest branded supplier of seafood products in Australia and New Zealand, John West recognises its role in safeguarding ocean resources. This position led the company to partner with WWF to ensure it takes the necessary steps in its journey to sustainability.

Terry O’Brien, Managing Director of Simplot Australia (owner of John West), says of the partnership, “At John West, we are passionate about seafood and dedicated to playing a role in the long-term health of our oceans. We are committed to responsibly sourcing our products and look forward to working collaboratively with WWF to ensure quality seafood can be enjoyed for generations to come.”

WWF works at a global level with fisheries and supply chain partners to protect our marine environment by improving the sustainability of seafood, and educating consumers about sustainable seafood choices.

Chris Howe, WWF-New Zealand Executive Director, says: “There is increasing recognition of the importance of sustainable fisheries in protecting the world’s oceans and addressing consumers’ environmental concerns. WWF is pleased to announce this partnership and we look forward to working with John West to help safeguard our oceans.”

In addition to entering into WWF’s Global Sustainable Seafood Charter, John West has developed its own overarching sustainability strategy “Our Oceans Forever”. The strategy applies to all facets of John West’s business and has three key pillars designed to ensure long-lasting change: Respect for Resources, Commitment to Innovation and Passion for People.

In addition to “Our Oceans Forever” all of John West’s Alaskan Salmon products carry the Marine Stewardship Council’s (MSC) logo and are MSC certified, meaning that the product has met the MSC’s strict chain of custody criteria that ensures full traceability.

Patrick Caleo, Manager Australia and New Zealand, Marine Stewardship Council, says, “Our vision at MSC is to see the world’s oceans teeming with life, and seafood supplies safeguarded for this and future generations. We look forward to continuing our relationship with John West in the journey to achieving this vision, by providing consumers with an independently certified sustainable choice in seafood.”

John West has also committed to a conservation project with WWF, which will be launched in late 2012.

-ENDS-

NOTES TO EDITOR

WWF Global Sustainable Seafood Charter
WWF is creating solutions to the most serious environmental problems facing our planet, helping people and nature to thrive. WWF works with the fishing industry and other businesses, as well as government and local communities - in Australia, New Zealand, Oceania and globally - to safeguard marine wildlife, the natural environment and the livelihoods of people who depend on the oceans for their well-being.

This Charter jointly commits John West Australia & New Zealand and WWF to:
• Contribute to a future in which sustainable fisheries thrive in healthy ecosystems, benefiting people, businesses and species that depend on them.
• Work together towards sustainable fisheries management and aquaculture production.
• Safeguard valuable marine ecosystems, ensuring the long-term viability of seafood supply that we all depend on.
This Charter commits John West Australia & New Zealand to:
• Develop a sustainable procurement policy improvement plan to include promotion of the MSC and ASC and MSC and ASC certified products, ensure traceability of all seafood products and remove species of immediate concern.
• Promote and improve transparency and awareness amongst customers, employees and other key stakeholders.
• Help contribute to and improve policy and management reform in order to secure healthy marine ecosystems and sustainable fisheries and aquaculture.
• Contribute to and support the establishment and development of standards for certifying aquaculture products.
• Ensure all NEW John West Seafood products come from sustainable sources.
• Ensure traceability of ALL John West Seafood products.
• Make our sustainable seafood policy publically available.
• Make key sustainability information regarding our seafood products easily accessible to customers including online and in-store information on relevant products, and all other relevant information available on request.

The Marine Stewardship Council
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is an international non-profit organisation set up to help transform the seafood market to a sustainable basis. The MSC runs the only certification and ecolabelling programme for wild-capture fisheries consistent with the ISEAL Code of Good Practice for Setting Social and Environmental Standards and the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation Guidelines for the Eco-labelling of Fish and Fishery Products from Marine Capture Fisheries. These guidelines are based upon the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fishing and require that credible fishery certification and eco-labelling schemes include:

• Objective, third-party fishery assessment utilising scientific evidence
• Transparent processes with built-in stakeholder consultation and objection procedures
• Standards based on the sustainability of target species, ecosystems and management practices

The MSC has offices in London, Seattle, Tokyo, Sydney, The Hague, Glasgow, Berlin, Cape Town, Paris, Madrid and Stockholm.

In total, over 271 fisheries are engaged in the MSC programme with 135 certified and over 136 under full assessment. Another 40 to 50 fisheries are in confidential pre-assessment. Together, fisheries already certified or in full assessment record annual catches of close to nine million metric tonnes of seafood. This represents over 10 per cent of the annual global harvest of wild capture fisheries. Certified fisheries currently land over five

million metric tonnes of seafood annually – close to six per cent of the total harvest from wild capture fisheries. Worldwide, more than 13,000 seafood products, which can be traced back to the certified sustainable fisheries, bear the blue MSC ecolabel.
For more information visit www.msc.org

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