Pacific Seafood Group

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

Sustainable target fish stocks
Through its profile on FishChoice, Pacific Seafood Group provides full public disclosure of its portfolio regarding the origin, harvesting method, sustainability rating and certification of all its products, demonstrating that it has assessed the management status and level of sustainability of target stocks.

Disclosure of the origin of seafood products and marine feed ingredients
Pacific Seafood Group is one of the few companies that publishes the source of its seafood products through is profile on FishChoice. 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 identified for the company in the social responsibility measurement area.

Sustainable development strategy
Pacific Seafood Group discloses objectives covering sustainability topics in the seafood industry. The company has an opportunity to disclose a sustainable development strategy and how it identifies and prioritises the topics where it has the most impact.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
Pacific Seafood Group does not disclose the governance structure for the implementation of its sustainable development strategy or targets, such as the person, team or committee that holds ultimate responsibility for its implementation.

Stakeholder engagement
Pacific Seafood Group does not disclose stakeholder engagement activities, including how it selects the stakeholders, nor an overview of the topics discussed or their outcomes.

Engagement in policy advocacy
Pacific Seafood Group is involved in advocacy activities through engagement with several organisations, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Science Centers, Regional Fishery Councils, and State Departments of of Fish and Wildlife. The company has an opportunity to explain how its advocacy activities support the implementation of public policies or the strengthening legislation in the seafood industry. Furthermore, it has an opportunity to demonstrate results and/or impacts of its advocacy activities.

Commitment to sustainable fisheries and aquaculture
While Pacific Seafood Group has a commitment to sustainable fisheries and aquaculture and discloses the number of certified sustainable species and sustainable facilities that have been Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) or Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certified, the company has an opportunity to strengthen its commitment by setting time-bound targets and reporting against these targets.

Ecosystem impacts of fisheries
Through its FishChoice profile, Pacific Seafood Group provides some information on impact risks related to by-catch, endangered species and habitats. It could improve its performance by clearly reporting what proportion of the fisheries where risks have been identified are in Fishery Improvement Projects (FIPs), and which ones are not, and then describing its approach for improving all problematic fisheries.

Ecosystem impacts of aquaculture
Pacific Seafood Group does not disclose information about how it promotes sustainable aquaculture practices in its operations and supply chains. The company can improve its performance by disclosing how it addresses important issues in aquaculture, such as antibiotics use, aquaculture feed use, animal welfare, and impacts on endangered species and sensitive habitats. Furthermore, Pacific Seafood Group could disclose information about outbreaks, medicine use, and disease management plans in its aquaculture operations.

Commitment to traceability
Pacific Seafood Group commits to traceability and has used a proprietary tracing technology since 2002. The company has the opportunity to commit to the Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability (GDST) and support the implementation of robust traceability systems in the seafood industry.

Traceability system for seafood products and aquaculture feed ingredients
Pacific Seafood Group discloses that it has a traceability system in place. However, the company does not disclose information about how it traces and verifies the origins of seafood products. Robust traceability systems contribute to reducing social and environmental risks in a company’s operations and supply chains. The company can therefore improve in this area by presenting its traceability system, including the key data elements that are collected and the mechanisms used to verify information along the supply chain.

Risk-based approach to IUU fishing
Pacific Seafood Group provides information in reference to how it mitigates risks for IUU fisheries across its operations and supply chains through the use of certifications and sustainability ratings. However, it could improve its performance by disclosing how it conducts IUU risk assessments, and by providing evidence of a due diligence processes to identify and mitigate IUU risks across its operations and supply chain.

Forced and child labour
Pacific Seafood Group prohibits forced labour and child labour in its own operations and supply chain. The company has an opportunity to disclose a requirement that prohibits its suppliers from retaining workers’ personal documents and restricting workers’ freedom of movement. Additionally to combat child labour the company should require that suppliers have an age-verification system in place.

Living Wage
Pacific Seafood Group does not disclose that it pays its workers a living wage or requires its suppliers to do the same. Neither has it set targets to do so in the future.

Working and living conditions on board fishing vessels
No evidence was found of a group level approach to verify decent working and living conditions on fishing vessels. Pacific Seafood Group can improve its performance by ensuring that working and living conditions on vessels in its supply chain are monitored, disclosing monitoring results and demonstrating how risks are mitigated and improvements are implemented, where needed.

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

Engagement with and support for local communities
Pacific Seafood Group provides examples of engagement activities with local communities. The company could improve its reporting by disclosing a systematic process for engaging with local communities in its own operations and supply chain, and tracking progress of the results and impacts of its engagement with them.

Gender commitment in the supply chain
The company does not demonstrate how it drives gender equality and women’s empowerment in its supply chain.

No policies or commitments related to respect for human rights were found in the public domain. This includes the necessary policies and systems to respect basic human rights in its operations and supply chain.

No policies or commitments related to providing and promoting decent work were found in the public domain. This includes the provision of secure, safe and healthy workplaces, where workers are fairly remunerated and have a meaningful say in decision making.

Pacific Seafood Group discloses a statement on bribery and corruption for suppliers, but there remains an opportunity for the company to disclose further on this topic. Pacific Seafood Group does not publicly commit to protecting personal data and has not disclosed a privacy statement on the use of personal data. On tax, Pacific Seafood Group provides no information, for example no publicly available tax strategy was found in the public domain. In addition, the company does not demonstrate a sufficient commitment to responsible lobbying and political engagement and does not report on key metrics under this topic.