There’s been lot’s going on in our crazy old world.  We were at the Barcelona Seafood Show in May and in Lisbon just before, with a new factory visit in Matosinhos and a catch up with Maria and our key supplier from the island of Sao Jorge.   Our products were in Barcelona care of Naturland – thank you Nicole and Johnathan but Barcelona for us was all about our engagement with our companies and NGO’s in trying to make global fishing more sustainable.  We caught up with the Sustainable Seafood Coalition and NAPA, the North Atlantic Pelagic Advocacy group where we are both members.  We joined up with the Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability and caught up with an old friend, Eric from ThisFish, who used to provide us with a traceability tool.  

Most importantly, Community Catch was launched in Barcelona and we started speaking with our Scottish cannery about putting the west coast sprat fishery into the program, which means us both co-funding it.  There was a very good vibe around Community Catch and a feeling that it was time for something new with the MSC monopolising the space too much and progress, especially with respect to small scale fishery development and sourcing, having stalled.  Our colleagues in Community Catch are a lovely bunch and a posh celebration dinner was enjoyed after 3 years of intense work.

We’re also doing a round of UK foodie festivals, from Brighton to Bath, from to Cambridge to Oxford and what we hope will be a highlight of the year with the Taste of London show in London’s Hyde Park in June and chef Aaron Middelton joining us for a demonstration of quick and tasty recipes.   If you’ve caught us there, say hi on our socials.

In terms of trade shows, we were in Paris with Accord Bio in April and will be in Bordeaux with Bio-Monde in June, selling and linking up with two great organisations of organic shops and then we will be doing much the same at Udea for Ekoplaza and other shops in August for the Netherlands and Belgium.  We’re thinking of joining the Naturland stand at Anuga in Koln in October because of our big news collab with Al Natura, a huge player in the organic space there and then we will be back in Paris at the end of November for Natexpo.

Certification of the Azores fishery by Naturland is co-ordinated and paid for by Fish4Ever.  We pay not just the annual licence fees but also for quite heavy annual inspection costs for Apasa, the pole & line boat co-operative in Faial and for our cannery in Sao Jorge.

Naturland is a pioneer organic certifier, formed by farmers Munich 42 years ago.  Naturland is big in terms of developing and improving standards incorporating fair trade principles and improved environmental requirements.  They have developed an independent wild fish certification and we have sponsored the Azores tuna fishery for 5 years. 

From June 2025 Naturland tuna will also be available in the Al Natura brand name – a hugely positive step that we hope will resonate with consumers looking for best. 

Naturland celebrated their 40th birthday with us in the Azores. 

We are one of the only brands brave or bothered enough to support two coalitions of NGO’s and fishery experts fed up with the low standard of sustainability for seafood that the MSC represents.  Efforts to improve the standard were almost successful with a Version 3 launched by MSC – and describes as ‘most improved’ and ‘biggest change ever’ by the MSC themselves until it was quietly ditched a few months later.  New research showed that 92% of sustainably certified fisheries actually have conditions (effectively opt outs) attached when first certified with more than 50% rolling those conditions into future certifications.

Full report here published in the journal Marine Development last month.

We are members of NAPA, an advocacy group seeking to influence the governments of the Coastal States that share the fishing of the mackerel in the North Atlantic.  Mackerel here has been overfished for more than 10 years with catch levels exceeding the scientifically recommended maximum.  This isn’t good enough.  NAPA has issued three demands.  1. Everyone reduce fishing by 10%.  2. No mackerel for fish feed.  3. No fishing n the high seas.   As well as supporting NAPA we have long insisted on buying form only Scottish boats.  Scotland struck a deal with the Faroe Islands and Norway that meets those demands AND gives access to boats from the Faroes to fish in Scottish waters rather than the high seas.

The IPNLF is an international charity which works with one- by-one fisheries globally to support and develop one by one fisheries with advocacy, improvement initiatives and both political and scientific representation.  We keep close contact with the IPNLF who managed the plastic positive project we co-sponsored with Bio-Coop.  We are currently aiming to support an LCA/carbon footprint analysis for pole and line fishing.

This is a real biggie.  Community Catch is a new initiative to support small scale fisheries globally.  It’s been three years in the making, and we’ve been involved closely from the very start on the Standards Committee, elsewhere, and then as Director and finally when charitable status was confirmed, our founder became one of the Trustees, helping to steer the project to launch.  Community Catch is three things: 1. a free benchmarking standard, available on-line to all fisheries, incorporating both social and ecological dimensions.  2. An audited FIP scheme where hopefully fishery buyers will co-ordinate with selected fisheries to help them tackle sustainability challenges and 3. A certification reserved for fisheries that have passed all criteria and being independently verified.