Nueva Pescanova

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

Animal welfare
Nueva Pescanova discloses a commitment to upholding animal welfare practices. This includes disclosing that it is addressing specific welfare issues, including respecting stocking density, managing diseases, improving water quality, minimizing transportation times and humane slaughter methods for its key species. The company also discloses its process for implementing this policy through relevant third party certifications, including the Global G.A.P, ASC and BAP certifications. Going forward, the company should look to apply the approach it has taken towards reporting on survival rates, i.e. reporting progress and metrics against a time bound target, to other animal welfare issues it has identified.

Antibiotics and medicine use
Nueva Pescanova’s approach on antibiotics is leading within the Food and Agriculture sector. The company discloses a ’zero use’ policy towards its use of antibiotics, including prophylactic application and growth promoting substances in all farmed species and geographies. This policy also includes antibiotics classified as critically important antimicrobials for human medicine. The company discloses the process for implementing this policy, through sector-specific certification schemes and auditing. The company also discloses a time bound target for the policy, 2021, which includes reporting progress against the target on the quantities of antibiotics used for the reporting year across all of its species and geographies.

Commitment to traceability
Nueva Pescanova is committed to the GDST standard and has set a time-bound target to fully implement it by 2030. With this commitment, the company supports implementing robust traceability systems in the seafood industry.

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

Sustainable development strategy
Nueva Pescanova discloses its process 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 set time-bound targets on several topics and reports progress against targets. While Nueva Pescanova has a target on occupational health and safety, has an opportunity to develop other time-bound targets related to social responsibility topics in the seafood industry.

Governance and accountability
Nueva Pescanova discloses that accountability for and oversight of its sustainability strategy lies with the highest governance body (Governance and Corporate Responsibility Committee of the Board of Directors). In addition, its highest governance body’s remuneration policy is sometimes linked to sustainability objectives. The company could further improve by systematically integrating sustainability objectives linked to ecosystems, traceability and social responsibility in its remuneration policy.

Stakeholder engagement
Nueva Pescanova discloses its process for identifying and engaging with stakeholders across its value chain and that its stakeholder engagement covers several sustainability topics in the seafood industry across its value chain. However, how stakeholder engagement outcomes are integrated into its strategy, beyond its materiality assessment, remains unclear.

Engagement in policy advocacy
Nueva Pescanova discloses examples of advocacy activities in sustainability initiatives such as the UN Global Compact and sectoral associations like Conxemar and CEPESCA. However, the company does not disclose the details the advocacy activities it undertakes, individually and/or collectively, to specifically improve public policies and strengthen legislation in line with the SDGs, nor was any reporting found on results or impacts of policy advocacy activities.

Commitment to sustainable fisheries and aquaculture
Nueva Pescanova has a target to achieve 100% sustainable sourcing of seafood raw materials by 2030. Further, the company reports on progress towards this target. However, there is an opportunity for improvement, as there is still a part of the company’s seafood supply chain where the sustainability status is not assessed, and the certification status of its externally supplied seafood products remains unclear.

Endangered species and habitats
Nueva Pescanova reports that it does not have endangered species in its portfolio and checks this through the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. However, the company does not disclose information about impacts on endangered species in its operations and supply chain. Similarly, while Nueva Pescanova discloses general activities to reduce harming sensitive habitats, information about its impacts on specific habitats and how these are mitigated was not found.

Abandoned, discarded or lost fishing gear
Nueva Pescanova has made general efforts for preventing and reducing abandoned, discarded or lost fishing gear (ADLFG) through gear marking projects in Namibia and Mozambique, and it has a section in its Sectoral Policy for Fisheries Responsibility dedicated to the topic. However, the company has room for improvement by disclosing an assessment of which parts of its operations is particularly at risk of ADLFG and sharing outcomes and impacts of its activities.

Traceability system for seafood products and aquaculture feed ingredients
Nueva Pescanova provides information on the systems it has in place to trace the origins of its seafood products. The company also discloses the data elements it collects, such as fishing days, vessel name, company, processing unit and export/transaction codes. Although the company already states that it is working on implementing a GDST compliant traceability system, it has an opportunity to further improve by disclosing how it verifies the data in its current traceability system.

Risk-based approach to IUU fishing
Nueva Pescanova mitigates risks of IUU fishing by sourcing certified seafood products. It also describes its approach to address these risks within its operations by stating that it complies with the requirements and recommendations presented in various reports on IUU fishing. However, it can improve its performance on this topic by showing whether it has a mechanism in place to conduct risk assessments on IUU fishing as well as due diligence processes to identify and mitigate these risks in its supply chain.

Disclosure of the origins of seafood products
Nueva Pescanova discloses an overview of its fishing activities, including information about catches, by-catch levels, fishing area, fishing method and the sustainability status of its target stocks. The company also discloses production volumes and the sustainability status of farming operations. While the company is transparent about its own operations, it could still improve by following the same process for its externally supplied products.

Forced labour
While Nueva Pescanova commits to prohibiting forced labour in its own operations and supply chain, it has an opportunity to disclose a requirement that prohibits its suppliers from retaining workers’ personal documents and restricting workers’ freedom of movement. Although it is a vertically integrated company, Nueva Pescanova still relies on external suppliers for a significant portion of its sourcing.

Working and living conditions on board fishing vessels
In the company’s Corporate Policy on Occupational Health and Safety, Nueva Pescanova has made a commitment to ensuring decent working and living conditions on board fishing vessels. The company also monitors for compliance but has room for improvement by publicly disclosing monitoring results. It could also show how risks on board fishing vessels are mitigated and improvements are implemented, where needed.

Respecting customary (indigenous) rights
Nueva Pescanova is one of the few companies that has a commitment on respecting indigenous rights and customary rights. The company can further improve by showing how it implements this commitment.

Supporting development of local communities
As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy, Nueva Pescanova has a Responsible Action Programme, where it identifies and guides responsible actions, including those that support local communities. It also tracks the progress of the results and impacts of these activities. The company could further improve in this area by demonstrating a process for regularly engaging with local communities to identify key negative impacts, as well as by systematically disclosing outcomes of its community engagement.

Nueva Pescanova commits to respecting human rights and ILO core labour rights in its operations and expects suppliers to respect the ILO core labour rights. While the company provides a grievance mechanism for workers and suppliers, it does not disclose whether grievances can be reported anonymously and whether potentially affected external individuals and communities can also makes reports through this mechanisms. Moreover, the company does not provide evidence of a human rights due diligence process nor disclose how it engages with affected and potentially affected stakeholders.

Nueva Pescanova commits to respect the health and safety of its workers and expects it suppliers to do the same. While disclosing, for example, the number and frequency of accidents, the company lacks disclosure on the main types of work-related injuries and number of hours worked. Related to workforce diversity, Nueva Pescanova discloses data on age and gender and has an opportunity to also disclose data on race or ethnicity. Although the company discloses on collective bargaining agreement coverage in Argentina, Spain, Namibia and Mozambique, it does not disclose the proportion of its total direct workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements. The company does not disclose commitments regarding paying a living wage and ensuring decent working hours in its operations and supply chain.

Nueva Pescanova addresses all key issues for ethical business conduct through publicly available policies or statements, but there remains an opportunity to disclose more specific information about these topics. While disclosing a global tax policy and total income tax paid, the company does not disclose income taxes paid for each tax jurisdiction. Nueva Pescanova prohibits bribery and corruption in its operations and business relations and describes the due diligence process and practices implemented to identify and prevent bribery and corruption on its activities, operations and third party relations. Nueva Pescanova prohibits political contributions and sets out its approach to political engagement. However, the company does not disclose its approach to lobbying nor its lobbying expenditures.