Meijer seeking sustainable seafood products at its supplier event

Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S.A.-based retailer Meijer is seeking sustainable seafood and other sustainable products when it hosts its first Sustainability Supplier Summit, to be held virtually 20 to 23 June, 2022.

The Meijer Sustainability Summit aims to expand its sustainable product offerings and will focus on categories storewide, the company said in a press release. Certified vendors with retail-ready products must apply by 26 April for consideration, the company said in a press release.

In order to meet its sustainability standards, Meijer merchants are targeting 38 different certifications on vendor products or their manufacturing and procurement processes. For example, its seafood merchants are looking at vendors following Best Aquaculture Practices certification.

"At Meijer, we understand that to be a good company, we must be a good neighbor, which is why we integrate environmental sustainability into our daily operations," Meijer Executive Vice President of Merchandising and Marketing Peter Whitsett said. "But so much of what we do in this space extends beyond what customers see on our shelves, which was why we felt it was time to seek out sustainability-focused vendors to help us expand our significant base of sustainable product offerings."  

Meijer is partnering with Efficient Collaborative Retail Marketing (ECRM) and its subsidiary product discovery tool, RangeMe, to host the event through the company's ECRM Connect virtual platform. Once applications for the event are submitted, Meijer teams will review and select the vendors they would like to meet at the virtual summit. Suppliers not chosen for the summit will still be accessible through the RangeMe registration tool and may be reviewed by Meijer merchants again in the future as the company’s business needs change.

A recent Meijer survey found its customers wanted it to commit to sourcing from companies with a strong commitment to sustainability, and to expand its offerings of sustainable products. In 2018, the supermarket chain agreed to share its seafood sourcing practices as part of the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership’s Ocean Disclosure Project (ODP).

Photo courtesy of Meijer