Pacific Seafood Group

Lobbying and advocacy
Pacific Seafood Group discloses a list of trade associations of which it is a member.

Sustainable fisheries and aquaculture
Pacific Seafood Group demonstrates a commitment to sustainable seafood through the use of environmental sourcing criteria.

No leading practices were identified in the traceability area.

No leading practices were identified in the social responsibility area.

No leading practices were identified in the core social indicators area.

Sustainability strategy
Pacific Seafood Group has an opportunity to disclose its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability topics and impacts. While the company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets, it has an opportunity to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. Furthermore, it could report consistently against all its targets.

Accountability for sustainability strategy
Pacific Seafood Group has an opportunity to strengthen its sustainability governance and accountability by designating an individual or body to implement its sustainability strategy and by assigning decision-making and oversight responsibilities to its highest governance body. It could link senior executives’ compensation to targets and objectives, including ecosystem impacts, and social responsibility issues. Additionally, it could disclose if the highest governance body has expertise in its most material sustainability topics.

Stakeholder engagement
Pacific Seafood Group has an opportunity to disclose an overview of the issues raised by each stakeholder group during its stakeholder engagement activities and to describe its process, including frequencies and channels, for engaging with stakeholder groups beyond its materiality assessment.

Lobbying and advocacy
Pacific Seafood Group has an opportunity to disclose a clear and detailed framework for assessing alignment of its trade associations with its sustainability targets.

Sustainable fisheries and aquaculture
Although Pacific Seafood Group demonstrates a commitment to sustainable seafood, there is room for improvement by offering more quantitative evidence to support the increase in these practices. Specifically, the company should consider disclosing targets for sustainable fisheries and aquaculture across its entire portfolio and reporting progress in achieving these targets.

Ecosystem impacts of fisheries
Pacific Seafood Group discloses that it offers 46 Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified species presented through its FishChoice profile. However, it is not clear whether its FishChoice profile reporting covers its entire portfolio. Pacific Seafood Group therefore has an opportunity to clearly report on the sustainability status of its entire wild caught product portfolio and how it addresses ecosystem impacts in source fisheries that are not certified.

Ecosystem impacts of aquaculture
Pacific Seafood Group does not report on the use of marine ingredients in its aquaculture operations. The company can therefore improve in this area by for example by disclosing the forage fish dependency ratio (FFDR) of fishmeal and fish oil used in aquaculture feed production across 100% of its operations. Furthermore, it could also disclose its approach to other key issues in aquaculture such as how it limits the (prophylactic) use of antibiotics and implements animal welfare standards.

Traceability systems and commitments for seafood products and aquaculture feed ingredients
Pacific Seafood Group has a general commitment to traceable seafood and marine feed ingredients. However, there is no publicly available information about the traceability system(s) in place in its operations and supply chains. As such the company has an opportunity to strengthen its commitment to traceability setting a time-bound target to implement the Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability (GDST) standards and report progress against this target.

Risk-based approach to illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing
Pacific Seafood Group sources from Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified fisheries which mitigates risks of IUU fishing in those fisheries. However, there exists an opportunity for the company to demonstrate how it assesses IUU risks across 100% of its operations and supply chain and addresses any identified risks.

Disclosure of the source of seafood products and marine feed ingredients
Through its FishChoice profile, Pacific Seafood Group reports provides a list of products in its portfolio, their provenance and their sustainability status. However, the information dates back to 2020 and it is not clear whether it covers the entire portfolio. The company has an opportunity to provide updated information and publicly disclose a full overview of the sources of all its products, including additional information such as management status, geographic location, species and production method.

Forced Labour
Pacific Seafood Group has an opportunity to disclose forced labour requirements for its operations and supply chain such as a prohibition to pay recruitment fees, to retain workers’ personal documents or to restrict workers’ freedom of movement. Further, it could provide evidence of how it builds the capacity of its suppliers to prevent forced labour impacts.

Farmer and fisher livelihoods
Pacific Seafood Group has an opportunity to identify living income benchmarks and assess living income gaps for some commodities and regions. Also, it could adopt procurement practices and develop supply chain relationships that improve fishers and farmers’ income resilience.

Working and living conditions on board fishing vessels
Pacific Seafood Group does not demonstrate that it has measures in place to ensure decent working and living conditions on board fishing vessels. It could improve its performance by monitoring working and living conditions on its fishing vessels, disclosing the results of its monitoring, and demonstrating how it mitigates risks and implements improvements where needed.

Respect human rights
Pacific Seafood Group has an opportunity to disclose a policy statement that commits to respecting human rights recognized as fundamental rights at work by the ILO, and extend this expectation to its suppliers. In terms of risk identification, the company has the chance to describe the process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts, covering both its own operations and its supply chain. Furthermore, it can outline a process for assessing and identifying its salient human rights issues. Finally, the company could establish a global system to address its salient human rights issues.

Provide and promote decent work
Pacific Seafood Group has an opportunity to disclose a policy commitment to respecting the health and safety of workers across both its operations and supply chain. Moreover, it could strengthen this by presenting evidence of its monitoring of suppliers’ adherence to health and safety standards. Furthermore, there’s room for the company to enhance its transparency by revealing a time-bound target for paying a living wage for all employees. The company could effectively work towards this objective by disclosing the process of determining the living wage in various operational regions. Additionally, the company could illuminate its collaboration with suppliers to ensure the implementation of living wage practices. Simultaneously, the company could take a significant step by committing to gender equality and women’s empowerment. To reinforce this commitment, it could disclose related targets while showcasing the representation of women on its highest governance body.

Act ethically
Pacific Seafood Group has an opportunity to disclose a policy on bribery and corruption, and include anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with business relationships. It could also disclose its processes for identifying and addressing bribery and corruption, along with implementing a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise related complaints. Additionally, the company could disclose its approach to lobbying and political engagement, specifying that it does not make political contributions and divulging its lobbying expenditures.