Austevoll Seafood

No leading practices were identified for the company in the governance and strategy measurement area.

Animal welfare
Austevoll discloses a fish health and fish welfare policy which addresses multiple animal welfare issues for its key species. This includes efforts to optimize nutrition, environmental conditions and slaughtering processes for fish. The company also includes its process for implementing this policy through third party auditing, including sector-specific certifications such as the Global G.A.P, ASC and MSC. Going forward, Austevoll could further improve by integrating the approach it has taken with other welfare issues, such as outbreaks of diseases and survival rates, i.e., disclosing time-bound targets and reporting progress against it, towards other animal welfare issues it has identified.

Prevention and mitigation of escapes
Austevoll’s subsidiary Lerøy, which is involved in salmon farming, reports implementing measures to prevent the accidental escapes of fish. In 2020, only 208 fish escaped its operations. While this is slightly higher than in previous years, it is still far below many of its peers.

Mortality and survival rates
In its fish farming operations, Austevoll’s survival rate target is 95% across the year. The company reports achieving 91.9% throughout its operations, a slight decline compared with previous years. However, Austevoll has several disease management plans in place to prevent mortality, such as assessing wound risks and better feed to prevent diseases.

Antibiotic use and growth promoting substances
Austevoll’s approach on antibiotics is leading within the Food and Agriculture sector. The company discloses a time bound target for zero use of antibiotics by 2021. This includes both the prophylactic use of antibiotics and growth promoting substances, as well as antibiotics classified as “medically important”. Moreover, the company discloses the quantities of antibiotics used annually, demonstrating the company is measuring progress against the 2021 target. Finally, the company discloses its process for implementing this policy, through relevant third party and sector-specific certifications.

No leading practices were identified for the company in the social inclusion measurement area.

No leading practices were identified for the company in the social inclusion measurement area.

Sustainable development strategy
Austevoll has a process in place for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability topics as well as the outcome of this process in relation to its sustainability strategy. The company has four strategic focus areas, for which it sets commitments and relevant key performance indicators and targets. The company, however, can improve its commitments by translating these into targets that are time-bound to provide clarity and create accountability about when these targets need to be achieved.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
Austevoll has three board members who are part of the Committee for Social Responsibility and Sustainability. In addition, the variable pay in the senior personnel’s remuneration policy mentions sustainability goals.

Stakeholder engagement
While Austevoll has conducted stakeholder engagement activities and discloses an overview of the issues raised via these activities, it has an opportunity also to disclose how it identifies its most relevant stakeholders, along with information on how the outcomes of the process are integrated into its sustainable development strategy.

Engagement in policy advocacy
No information was found about specific advocacy activities Austevoll undertakes, individually and/or collectively, to improve public policies and strengthen legislation in relation to sustainable seafood production, nor was any reporting on outcome or impacts of policy advocacy activities.

Commitment to sustainable fisheries and aquaculture
Austevoll does not have a time-bound target for sustainable fisheries and aquaculture for its entire portfolio of seafood products. However, the company does mention a group-wide goal to work towards 100% environmentally certified aquaculture production. It also reports on certified farming as well as the proportion of its fishing activities that is certified, but it is not clear whether this proportion refers to its own fishing activities or also includes purchases from external suppliers. As a result, this opens up an opportunity for the company to improve, alongside setting a time-bound target.

Ecosystem impacts of fisheries
Austevoll’s high percentage of certified operations is how it reduces ecosystem impacts, such as by-catch. As such, 93.84% of its fisheries is certifed by either the Marine Stewardship Council, MarinTrust, or Friends of the Sea. However, the company could further report on the exact proportion of its volumes per certification scheme. It could also share results, if any, of its activities beyond certifications, such as those already in place on by-catch mitigation and avoiding harm to endangered species.

Commitment to traceable seafood and marine ingredients
Austevoll discloses a general commitment towards traceability, particularly through its subsidiary Lerøy. The company could strengthen its approach by committing to the Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability standard and supporting the implementation of robust traceability systems in the seafood industry.

Traceability system for seafood products and aquaculture feed ingredients
While its subsidiaries Lerøy and FoodCorp provide information about traceability systems that are in place, Austevoll does not explain how traceability is addressed at group level. The company could improve by further disclosing how data is collected, verified and shared along the supply chain and what data elements are collected at the group level.

Risk-based approach to IUU fishing
Austevoll does not provide information about its risk-based approach to assess IUU fishing risks in its supply chains, though its certifications do mitigate these risks. The company could demonstrate it has a risk assessment tool in place to conduct risk assessments on IUU fishing across 100% of its operations and supply chains and provide the data sources and information used for the assessments.

Disclosure of the origin of its seafood and marine ingredients
Austevoll discloses species and volumes, but it does not provide other information about the origin of its product portfolio. The company has a clear opportunity to improve by reporting on the management status and geographic location of each of its fisheries and sourced products.

Forced labour
While Austevoll prohibits forced labour in its own operations, it is not clear whether its code of conduct fully and equally applies to its suppliers. The company has an opportunity to clarify this by demanding its suppliers to abide by the code.

Living wage
Austevoll does not disclose that it pays its workers a living wage nor requires its suppliers to do the same. Neither has it set targets to do so in the future.

Health and safety of vulnerable groups
Austevoll does not disclose that it specifically recognises the health and safety risks to vulnerable groups, such as migrant and temporary workers, women and young farmers.

Working and living conditions on board fishing vessels
Although Austevoll has a code of conduct in place, it does not show how it verifies decent working and living conditions on board fishing vessels within in its own operations and supply chains. The company can improve its performance by monitoring these conditions on vessels, disclosing the results, and explaining how risks are mitigated and improvements implemented, where needed.

Supporting development of local communities
Austevoll has several projects that involve local communities, particularly through its subsidiary Austral. However, no overarching strategy and progress-tracking of these activities have been found.

Austevoll provides a grievance mechanism for its workers but none for external individuals and communities. It is committed to respecting the human rights of its workers. However, no sufficient overall commitment to human rights was found in the public domain. The company does not provide evidence of a human rights due diligence process or substantial engagement with affected and potentially affected stakeholders.

Austevoll publicly commits to respecting the health and safety of workers but does not disclose how it monitors the health and safety performance of its suppliers. The company discloses information about collective bargaining agreements covering its workforce but not on its approach within its supply chain. Austevoll reports that three out seven of its board members are women but does not publicly commit to gender equality and women’s empowerment nor disclose the ratio of the basic salary and remuneration of women to men. No information was found in the public domain on living wage, working hours and workforce diversity.

Austevoll publicly prohibits bribery and corruption and takes steps to identify and address bribery and corruption risks and incidents, although it is unclear whether the whistleblowing channel is accessible to all stakeholders. The company has a global publicly available privacy statement relating to the collection, sharing of and access to personal data but no public commitment to protect personal data. No public global tax approach and disclosures on corporate income tax payments on a country-by-country basis were found in the public domain. The company states that it does not support political parties but does not set out its lobbying approach.