High Liner Foods

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

Sustainable target fish stocks
High Liner Foods has assessed the sustainability status of all its wild-caught and farmed products and discloses that assessment through the Ocean Disclosure Project. By reporting through the Ocean Disclosure Project platform, High Liner Foods shows that it has assessed the management status of all sourced seafood in its portfolio. The company could further improve its performance in this area by demonstrating how it mitigates negative impact across all target fish stocks that require improvement.

Disclosure of the source of seafood products and marine feed ingredients
High Liner Foods is one of the few companies that discloses the source of its seafood products through the Ocean Disclosure Project. By reporting through this platform, the company promotes transparency and provides a comprehensive up-to-date overview of its farmed and wild seafood products, including species, harvest or farming method, location and sustainability status.

No leading practices were found for the company in the social responsibility measurement area.

Sustainability development strategy
Since 2009, High Liner Foods has organised regular Sustainability Summits with various stakeholders to identify and prioritise the most relevant sustainability topics to include in its sustainable development strategy. Through this process, the company has identified 11 sustainability topics but has set a sustainable development objective for only one (responsible supply). Therefore, High Liner Foods could improve its by linking its material issues to timebound targets (covering its own operations as well as its value chains). It could also integrate reporting of progress against those targets.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
High Liner Foods’ Environmental Steering Committee oversees the company’s environmental programmes, including regulatory compliance and occupational health and safety. This committee is made up of representatives from across the company and reports to the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors. However, no public information was found on whether the company’s remuneration policy is linked to the achievement of sustainability goals.

Stakeholder engagement
High Liner Foods engages with its stakeholders through its Sustainability Summit, which it has been organising on a regular basis since 2009. The company discloses the outcome of that process by listing the priority topics identified and discussed at the 2019 summit and which one forms the basis of its sustainable development strategy. The company could improve its performance by explaining how it identifies its stakeholders.

Engagement in policy advocacy
High Liner Foods is a member of the Seafood Task Force, which is an industry-led pre-competitive platform that aims to improve transparency and oversight in seafood supply chains with regards to environmental and social risks, including overfishing and human rights risks. The Seafood Task Force has made a number of requests to the Thai government to improve legislation and enforcement related to supply chain transparency, environmental sustainability and employment practices. High Liner Foods is also a member of the Asian Farmed Shrimp Supply Chain Roundtable, which focuses on engaging governments to accelerate adoption of better management practices to reduce disease risk and environmental impacts. The supplier roundtable works by advocating for policy and regulatory change through its supply chain network. High Liner Foods could improve performance in this area by clearly disclosing the impacts of those policy advocacy activities.

Commitment to sustainable fisheries and aquaculture
High Liner Foods is committed to sustainable fisheries and aquaculture. In 2019, the company reported that 96% of the seafood it purchased was responsibly sourced and has set a target of 100% for its portfolio. High Liner considers seafood responsibly sourced if it comes from an operation that is certified against standards recognized by the Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative (GSSI) (e.g. Marine Stewardship Council, Aquaculture Stewardship Council), is rated green or yellow (e.g. Ocean Wise or Seafood Watch) or is in a credible improvement project. The company has made good progress against its target, but has an opportunity to further improve by making its target time-bound so that it is clear when it expects to meet the target.

Ecosystem impacts of fisheries
By reporting through the Ocean Disclosure Platform, High Liner Foods provides some information on impact risks related to by-catch, endangered species and habitats. High Liner Foods mitigates impacts in its portfolio by sourcing seafood products from fishery and aquaculture improvement projects. It also does so by working with other seafood companies to support the launch of fishery improvement projects and certification efforts such as the Russian Pacific Cod fishery, Russian Wild Salmon fishery and the Russian West Bering Sea pollock. The company reports that 96% of its portfolio complies with its sourcing criteria (certified against GSSI-recognized standards, green or yellow rated or in a credible improvement project); however, it does not clarify what percentage of its portfolio meets which criteria (e.g. certified vs. in an improvement project).

Ecosystem impacts of aquaculture
High Liner Foods now requires that the sources for its aquaculture products must be certified according to a GSSI-approved standard, yellow or green rated or in an aquaculture improvement project. However, according to its profile on the Ocean Disclosure Project, the company sources several aquaculture products that still require improvement to meet its sourcing criteria. To address those impacts, the company is a member of the Asian Farmed Shrimp Supplier Roundtable and supports projects on shrimp health management in Thailand and Indonesia. Aside from these activities, High Liner Foods could improve by developing policies with company-wide targets on how it aims to reduce key issues in the aquaculture sector. These include reducing medically important antimicrobials, improving animal welfare and addressing the impacts of aquaculture feeds.

Commitment to traceability
High Liner Foods mentions collaborating with seafood organisations through the GS1 North American Traceability Task Group and the Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability (GDST). However, it is not a member of the GDST and does not have an explicit timebound commitment to traceability.
Traceability system for seafood and aquaculture feed ingredients
High Liner Foods describes having a traceability system that meets the needs of the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP) in the United States. It also discloses which data elements it tracks for SIMP, such as fishery, country of catch or farming and certification status. The company could improve its performance by providing a more detailed description on how it collects, verifies and shares data.

Risk-based approach to IUU fishing
High Liner Foods does not disclose having an approach to systematically assess the risks of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing across its supply chains. However, its sourcing requirements (fisheries and farms that are certified by GSSI approved standards, green or yellow rated or in an improvement project) constitute some level of mitigation against IUU fishing risks. The company could improve its score in this area by disclosing how it assesses these risks across its portfolio and making those assessments public.

Forced labour
High Liner Foods has identified social compliance as a priority material issue and codified its commitment in its Supplier Code of Conduct, which includes requirements to comply with applicable laws and regulations. The company audits all new vendors with follow-up audits (frequency depends on risk levels, from none to yearly). If a critical violation is found, which includes forced labour, during an audit, the company requires a corrective action plan. While Higher Liner Foods commits to prohibiting forced labour in supply chain, it has an opportunity to disclose a requirement that prohibits its suppliers from retaining workers’ personal documents or restricting their freedom of movement.

Health and safety of vulnerable groups
High Liner Foods’ recognises part of the health and safety risks to migrant workers by highlighting this group in its Supplier Code of Conduct as particularly vulnerable to human trafficking. However, the company could improve its score by requiring suppliers to consider all health and safety risks associated with all vulnerable groups and by providing evidence of support activities to mitigate those risks.

Working and living conditions on board fishing vessels
High Liners Foods’ social audits associated with its Supplier Code of Conduct include auditing vessels, but there is no disclosing of audits or monitoring. The company could improve its score by releasing the results of those assessments and disclosing how it improves where issues are identified. High Liner Foods is also a member of the Seafood Task Force, which has developed a Code of Conduct that covers a number of social compliance issues, including working and living conditions on board fishing vessels.

Respecting customary and indigenous rights
The company does not demonstrate how it respects customary and indigenous rights.

Engagement with and support for local communities
The company demonstrates examples of engagement with communities in its own operations and supply chains. For example, by year-end 2019, High Liner provided over six million meals to food banks and other organisations and supported local programmes focused on hunger education, the environment, and health and wellness. It is also a founding member of Friends of We Care. The company could improve its performance by demonstrating a process for regularly engaging with local communities in its own operations and supply chains and sharing the outcomes of its engagement.

High Liner Foods is committed to respecting human rights in its operations and expects suppliers to respect core labour rights of the International Labour Organization. However, the company does not publicly commit to respecting these ILO rights in its own operations, nor was any evidence found of a human rights due diligence process and grievance mechanism. In addition, High Liner Foods does not demonstrate how it engages with affected or potentially affected stakeholders.

High Liner Foods commits to respecting the health and safety of its workers, expects its suppliers to do the same and monitors their performance. Although it has disclosed some related data, the company lacks reporting on, for example, fatalities and high-consequence injuries in the workplace. High Liner Foods requires its suppliers to ensure decent working hours for its workers, but does not disclose a similar commitment for its own operations. Related to workforce diversity and gender equality, the company discloses gender data for its workforce and also that 30% of board members are female. However, it can increase disclosure on other markers of diversity and gender pay gaps. No commitments or reporting related to living wage and collective bargaining were found.

High Liner Foods has a publicly available policy statement prohibiting bribery and corruption, and it includes similar prohibitions in its supplier code of conduct, but it can improve disclosure on its processes to identify related risks. While the company discloses the executive responsible for its global tax strategy, the strategy itself and tax payments per jurisdiction are not publicly available. High Liner Foods shares its approach to responsible lobbying but does not disclose its related expenditures on lobbying. Neither does the company disclose that it does not make political donations.