Local Boats
When we buy from a fishery we ALWAYS choose to work with local boats. That means local boats, not to where we are but to where the fish is located. We believe that the local community has first dibs on the fish resource but also it will mean we are concerned about the flag state of the boat, we want it flagged to a country that is bordering the resource, in the vast majority of cases within the EEZ of that country. Locally flagged boats are far less likely to be the result of fast and loose practices, they are far more likely to be legally responsive to the local and legal management systems, not just of the fish resource, but of the fishing and with respect to the crew. The local boat ethic isn’t some gimmick, it lies at the heart of our responsible sourcing approach because it automatically and massively reduces the risk profile that we face.
Local Packing
When possible, we also want to work with local canneries, local to where the fish is actually caught. Local factories support jobs in the fishing community where the fish has been landed. This is a big social plus point for us. In our flagship partnership in the Azores, the factory is the main employer on a very small island, it’s critical for the health of the community, it has a high proportion of highly-capable women in senior roles and the bus which takes the workers to and from the factory also takes the children to school! A local cannery isn’t always an option but it is part of what we look for and what we believe contributes to the socially responsible exploitation of the fish resource and ownership from within the fish community itself rather than dependent on international capital is also a big plus.
