IFFO RS focuses on providing assistance to Southeast Asian fisheries at SWSS19

On Wednesday, 12 June, the Marine Ingredients Organization’s Global Standard for Responsible Supply (IFFO RS) aims to spotlight the importance of closer collaboration among regional fisheries’ stakeholders all along the seafood supply chain during a 2019 SeaWeb Seafood Summit session.

At the summit – which is taking place in Bangkok, Thailand from 10 to 14 June at the the Shangri La Hotel – IFFO RS will highlight the importance of fisheries improvement projects (FIPs) and their potential to drive positive change in fisheries management and the seafood sustainability movement. 

Libby Woodhatch, the IFFO RS executive chair, will moderate a multi-stakeholder panel comprised of industry, NGOs, and standard holders based and/or working in Southeast Asia from 3 p.m. until 4:30 p.m. (local time) on 12 June.  The group will “discuss the growing requirements of the aquaculture supply chain for responsible supply, including assurances around the protection of human rights, fish for direct human consumption, and the need for collaboration and harmonization in the approaches that are adopted to ensure consistency,” IFFO RS said in a press release.

According to IFFO RS and Woodhatch, the session will take inspiration from a recent project focused on Southeast Asian fisheries and jointly funded by the IFFO and the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA). 

“As underlined by the IFFO / GAA study, there is a collective need to work with Southeast Asian fisheries, which are often more complex than single species feed fisheries and to support them,” Woodhatch said. “The recommendations were a clear call to action and collaboration. They further validate the work currently being undertaken by IFFO RS in expanding the IFFO RS Improver Program to take into consideration the diverse and dispersed nature of the fisheries sector in countries across Southeast Asia. To achieve this goal, IFFO RS has been developing robust and credible assessment criteria through a series of pilots in multi species fisheries in Thailand and Vietnam.”

The panelists joining Woodhatch include Rawee Viriyatum, FIP coordinator for the Thai Sustainable Fisheries Roundtable; Dave Martin, the deputy division director of programs at SFP and deputy chair of the Seafood Task Force; Dan Lee, the standards coordinator and program integrity advisor at Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP); Margo de Naray, Cargill managing director for Vietnam and Thailand; and Francisco Aldon, the general manager for IFFO RS.