MSC launches new app for Chinese consumers tying seafood to health

The Marine Stewardship Council is seeking to expand its recognition among Chinese consumers by launching a new app that helps customers find out more about products bearing the MSC eco-label in China’s retail outlets.

There has been a rising preoccupation with health and wellness among China’s consumers due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Personal health and environmental health are intertwined,” said the MSC statement, written in Mandarin and distributed at a recent launch event for the new app in Shanghai.

The new app allows Chinese users to click on the QR codes of 600 MSC-certified products available in the country, including Arctic shrimp, cod, and turbot. The app stresses the strict rules and traceability used in the MSC certification process. 

In launching the app, MSC also pointed to the Chinese government’s Healthy China 2030 strategy to improve the country’s nutrition and well-being.  

Distributors of MSC-certified products include Qingdao Beiyang Jiamei Aquatic Products Co., which distributes in supermarkets and online in China under the Seamix brand, using the marketing slogan “food safety, responsibility, sustainability”. 

In its latest annual report, the MSC claims it has certified 17 percent of the world’s wild fisheries, and that eight percent of the world’s commercial catch by volume comes from fisheries working towards MSC certification.

Photo courtesy of Marine Stewardship Council