Agriculture and food system transformation

Measuring the world’s 30 most influential seafood companies

The World Benchmarking Alliance is benchmarking the 30 most influential companies in the seafood industry. Measuring actual performances compared to the Sustainable Development Goals set by the UN. The significant influence of these companies on the world’s seafood business means that they can accelerate positive change. Leading the move towards a sustainable seafood industry.

Three billion people rely on seafood as an essential part of their diet. Providing this nutritious food presents serious challenges for the seafood industry. The largest companies can address these issues. Including food insecurity in developing countries, human rights violations and illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing worldwide.

Five key findings

Our assessment of 30 of the largest seafood companies underlines that urgent steps need to be taken. The future long-term sustainability of the seafood industry is being hampered by a lack of oversight of operations and supply chains impacting for example, measures to tackle IUU fishing, protect ecosystems and respecting human rights and working conditions. The performance also indicates that the industry overall needs to move into a phase of active implementation. With just one decade left to achieve the SDGs, now is the time for the seafood industry to deliver and realize its full potential.

Key finding

Most companies are serious about sustainability.

28 of the companies we measured made reference to their responsibilities towards sustainability. 15 have published forward-looking corporate sustainability strategies.

Key finding

Complexity of seafood operations and supply chains increases environmental and social risks.

Who owns the company? Who is overseeing the company’s seafood operations? Who is responsible for implementing the sustainability strategy? Many of the companies we examined were part of complex and diverse company structures.

Key finding

Companies can do more to tackle illegal fishing.

Illegal, Unreported or Unregulated (IUU) fishing represents up to 26 million tonnes of fish caught annually. It’s clear that companies are committed to excluding IUU fish in their operations – except only about a third of the companies can prove they have specific mechanisms in place to reduce IUU risks in their supply chain.

Key finding

Companies are stepping up on human rights commitments.

22 of the 30 companies we measured have human rights commitments in place. However, they have to turn their commitments into procedures. For example, only 20% could demonstrate that they have a remediation mechanism in place.

Key finding

Urgent need for more transparency on sustainable seafood.

28 of the 30 companies benchmarked told us that they work with sustainability certification programmes. Nonetheless, certification and sustainability activities are not clear due to a lack of public disclosure.

View the performance of the 30 most influential seafood companies

Go to ranking

30 Seafood companies

Locations

Title: Austevoll Seafood ASA
Place: Storebø, Norway
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Title: BioMar Group
Place: Aarhus, Denmark
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Title: Bumble Bee Foods
Place: San Diego, USA
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Title: Cargill Aqua Nutrition
Place: Minneapolis, United States
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Title: Charoen Pokphand Foods
Place: Bangkok, Thailand
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Title: Cooke
Place: Blacks Harbour, Canada
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Title: Dongwon Group
Place: Seoul, South Korea
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Title: FCF Co., LTD.
Place: Kaohsiung / Taiwan ROC
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Title: High Liner Foods
Place: Canada
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Title: Kyokuyo
Place: Tokyo, Japan
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Title: Labeyrie Fine Foods
Place: St Geours de Maremne, France
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Title: Marubeni Corporation
Place: Tokyo, Japan
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Title: Maruha Nichiro
Place: Tokyo, Japan
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Title: Mitsubishi Corporation
Place: Tokyo, Japan
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Title: Mowi
Place: Bergen, Norway
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Title: Nippon Suisan Kaisha (Nissui)
Place: Tokyo, Japan
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Title: Nomad Foods
Place: Feltham, United Kingdom
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Title: Nueva Pescanova
Place: Chapela, Redondela - Pontevedra, Spain
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Title: Nutreco (Skretting)
Place: Amersfoort, The Netherlands / Stavanger, Norway
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Title: Pacific Seafood Group
Place: Oregon, United States
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Title: Parlevliet & Van der Plas
Place: Valkenburg (Katwijk), The Netherlands
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Title: Red Chamber Group
Place: Vernon, United States of America
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Title: Royal Greenland
Place: Nuuk, Greenland
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Title: SalMar
Place: Norway
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Title: Shanghai Fisheries Group Co., LTD.
Place: Shanghai, China
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Title: Thai Union Group
Place: Samut Sakhon, Thailand
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Title: Tri Marine Group
Place: Bellevue, United States of America
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Title: Trident Seafoods
Place: Seattle, United States of America
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Title: Wales Group (Sea Value & Sea Wealth)
Place: Bangkok, Thailand
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Title: Yokohama Reito (Yokorei)
Place: Yokahama, Japan
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