There are ever-increasing demands that seafood sellers base their fishing on sustainability, says Óli Kristján Ármannsson's article in the latest The market, the business paper of Fréttablaðið. There is an interview with Svein Margeirsson, department manager at Matís, who says that sustainability may be a ticket to more expensive retail chains abroad. This is especially important for the fishing industry when a possible reduction in cod fishing is imminent.
A conference on sustainability in the fishing industry will take place at Sauðárkrók on June 14. It is part of a West Nordic project called "Sustainable Food Information" and its aim is to make it easier for companies in the food industry, such as fishing companies, to demonstrate sustainability in fishing, processing and sales. The Food Research Institute of Iceland (Matís) is in charge of organizing the conference, says the Markadarsin article.
"There, people say that sustainability has become a particularly important concept in the fishing industry in light of the ever-increasing demands of sellers, retail chains and consumers that the ocean's resources are not harmed and that pollution during fishing, processing and transportation of seafood is kept to a minimum. In order to demonstrate sustainability, however, it is necessary to be able to trace the process that takes place in the food industry," says the Markadarin article.
Icelanders are at the forefront
Sveinn Margeirsson, head of the department in the field called new technology and markets at Matís ohf., says that a lot of good work has been done in this regard in this country. "We're really great at traceability here," he says, but by being able to trace the process, you get detailed information about the product. Sellers who have a "quality product" are said to be better able to differentiate themselves from others on the market."
Then Sveinn says: "Firstly, it's about the consumer being able to know where the product comes from, but that's the aspect that most people know, and secondly, about being able to track exactly which way the product went." If we take the example of lamb meat, the path from the farmer to the consumer goes through slaughter, meat processing, distribution and trade." Sveinn says Icelanders are generally ahead in the food industry in terms of traceability "and very ahead in the fishing industry internationally".