Wales Group (Sea Value & Sea Wealth)

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

No leading practices were identified in the ecosystems area.

No leading practices were identified in the traceability area.

Forced Labour
Wales Group discloses that it commits to conducting business with its supply chains on social and labour at a minimum of categories i.e., forced labour and ensure that its supply chains have a good practice on labour which comply with law and international regulations. Moreover, in its contractual arrangements with suppliers or supplier code of conduct, the company prohibits suppliers and any third-party recruitment intermediaries from imposing financial burdens on jobseekers and workers by collecting recruitment fees or related costs, and from retaining workers’ personal documents or restricting workers’ freedom of movement.

Respect human rights
Wales Group has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights and that expects its business relationships to commit to respecting the human rights that the ILO has declared to be fundamental rights at work, that is approved by the highest governance body.

Provide and promote decent work
Wales Group has a publicly available statement of policy that expects its business relationships to commit to respecting the health and safety of their workers.

Sustainability strategy
Wales Group has a sustainability strategy covering its most significant impacts and sustainability topics but could further establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain.

Accountability for sustainability strategy
Wales Group has several opportunities to increase accountability for its sustainability strategy. For example, it can link performance criteria in senior executives’ remuneration policies to its sustainability targets and objectives. Additionally, the company has an opportunity to disclose whether its highest governance body has expertise with respect to the company’s most material sustainability topics.

Stakeholder engagement
Wales 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 for engaging with stakeholder groups, beyond its materiality assessment.

Lobbying and advocacy
The company has an opportunity to disclose a clear and detailed framework for assessing alignment of its trade associations with its sustainability targets. Similarly, the company can increase its transparency efforts by reporting (potential) misalignments between the lobbying activities of its trade associations and its sustainability targets.

Sustainable fisheries and aquaculture
Wales Group subsidiary, SeaValue, is a member of International Sustainable Seafood Foundation (ISSF). Also, it discloses that it is committed to a series of principles and standards relating to seafood sustainability. Further, it discloses that its subsidiaries source from Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified fisheries. However, the company can improve in this area by disclosing specific targets for sustainable seafood that encompass its entire portfolio and reporting progress towards achieving these targets.

Ecosystem impacts of fisheries
Wales Group subsidiary, SeaValue, is a member of International Sustainable Seafood Foundation (ISSF) and sources 16% Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified tuna and 4% from fisheries engaged in a Fishery Improvement Project (FIP). However, the company has an opportunity to report at the parent level, to continue to increase the percentage of its portfolio that is certified and to provide additional quantitative disclosure regarding the progress made in implementing activities addressing ecosystem impacts.

Traceability systems and commitments for seafood products and aquaculture feed ingredients
SeaValue, a subsidiary of Wales Group, has a general commitment to traceability across all its operations and sources Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) products which implies chain of custody certification is in place for those products. Therefore, the company can strengthen its commitment by setting a time-bound target to implement the Global Dialogue for Seafood Traceability (GDST) standards in its opeations and supply chains. The company also has an opportunity to disclose further information about the traceability system(s) in place for its seafood products, including key data elements that are collected and the mechanisms used to verify the information along the supply chain.

Risk-based approach to illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing
SeaValue, a subsidiary of Wales Group, has a number of operations that are certified to Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) standards which can help mitigate the illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) risks in those fisheries. However, the company has an opportunity to produce an IUU risk assessment in its operations and demonstrate how it addresses any identified risks.

Disclosure of the source of seafood products and marine feed ingredients
Wales Group can improve its performance by disclosing an overview of its fishing and aquaculture operations and the seafood products it sources, including information about species, geographic location, and management status.

Forced Labour
Wales Group could disclose how it works with its supply chain to eliminate at least one of the following: imposing recruitment fees, retaining personal documents or restricting workers’ freedom of movement and could provide an analysis of trends demonstrating progress in relation to eliminating forced labour in its supply chain.

Farmer and fisher livelihoods
Wales 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 fisher and farmers’ income resilience.

Working and living conditions on board fishing vessels
Wales Group has an opportunity to improve its performance by disclosing a commitment to ensure decent working and living conditions on board fishing vessels. Taking proactive steps to monitor working and living conditions in its supply chain and openly disclosing the monitoring results will showcase transparency and accountability. By demonstrating how they address and mitigate risks, as well as implementing improvements where needed, Wales Group can play a positive role in enhancing working conditions and ensuring responsible practices within the industry.

Respect human rights
While Wales Group has a publicly available policy statement prohibiting forced labor and child labor, it could strengthen its commitment by respecting the other human rights that the ILO has declared to be fundamental rights at work i.e. the right not to be subject to discrimination and the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining. Regarding human rights due diligence, the company could take the opportunity to discloses its processes to identify, assess and take action to address its human rights risks and impacts, and disclose how it engages with affected and potentially stakeholders.

Provide and promote decent work
Wales Group has an opportunity to make publicly available a policy statement committing it to respect the health and safety of workers and disclose quantitative information on health and safety for its workers. It could also disclose a time-bound target for paying all workers a living wage or that it has achieved paying all workers a living wage, and how it determines a living wage in its locations of operation. It could also publicly state that workers shall not be required to work more than 48 hours in a regular work week or 60 hours including overtime, and that it places the same expectation on its business relationships with regards to their workers.

Act ethically
Wales Group could disclose available global tax strategy, which is approved by the highest governance body, and governance body or executive-level position is tasked with accountability for compliance with the strategy. It could also clearly discloses the amount of corporate income tax paid for each tax jurisdiction where the company is a resident for tax purposes. With regard to political engagement and lobbying, the company has an opportunity to set out its approach and disclose that it does not make political contributions, and any expenditure on lobbying should be made public. To align with best practice, the company could also disclose a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption in its operations.