{"id":3731,"date":"2023-04-13T09:03:34","date_gmt":"2023-04-13T02:03:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/haitrieufood.net\/?p=3731"},"modified":"2023-04-24T08:20:19","modified_gmt":"2023-04-24T01:20:19","slug":"namibia-revels-in-msc-certification-of-hake-fishery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.haitrieufood.com\/vi\/news\/namibia-revels-in-msc-certification-of-hake-fishery\/","title":{"rendered":"Namibia revels in MSC certification of hake fishery"},"content":{"rendered":"

A successful endeavor to rebuild Namibia\u2019s hake stocks and eliminate destructive fishing practices has earned the African country\u2019s hake trawl and longline fishery Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification last week. Members of the\u00a0fishery<\/strong>\u00a0say the eco-label will open up more global market opportunities for them, especially in Europe and North America, where demand for sustainably sourced seafood is on the rise.<\/p>\n

The fishery becomes the first in Namibia and second one in Africa \u2013 after\u00a0the South Africa\u2019s hake trawl fishery\u00a0\u2013 to achieve the MSC standard, a reward for the many years the government and private sector devoted to improving the biodiversity of the Namibian oceans and sustainably maximizing the marine resource, Namibian Hake Association Executive Secretary Ron Wolters said.<\/p>\n

The Namibian hake fishery was independently assessed by global inspection and certification contractor Control Union, and confirmed to be meeting the three principles of the MSC Fisheries Standard, which includes stock health, environmental impacts and effective management. The fishery scored an average of 80 percent in the 28 performance indicators within the three principles.<\/p>\n

During the assessment for certification, the Namibian hake fishery exhibited resilience and strong performance backed by \u201cavailability of data for hake stock assessment and harvest strategies, having in place measures to minimize bycatch, a ban on discarding commercial species, presence of measures to minimize impacts on demersal habitats, and an established and transparent rights allocation process,\u201d according to MSC Senior Program Manager for Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia Michael Marriott.<\/p>\n

The MSC certification is likely to result in \u201cprice premium, access to markets, or even leverage with government,\u201d Marriott said.<\/p>\n

Marriott told SeafoodSource in an email that the desire for MSC certification by Namibia\u2019s hake-fishing companies could partly be attributed to the \u201cincreasing demand for certified whitefish, particularly in higher-value markets.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving independent verification of environmental performance can influence a fishery\u2019s status in seafood rating systems, and also the likelihood of fulfilling the expectations of supply chain buyers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Wolters, who serves as a representative of the fishery\u2019s members, confirmed the certification will ease accessibility of certified Namibian hake to global markets such as Europe, where retailers prefer stocking certified fish and seafood products.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving the MSC certification means we can get top dollar for high-quality products, and that benefit is kept locally,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The fishery\u2019s hake resource comprise of up 90 percent of the shallow-water hake, while the country\u2019s deeper waters is home to the deep water hake, which is crucial to the freezer trawler fleet,\u00a0according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Namibia now expects to add 160,000 metric tons of certified seafood to the global market expanding further the value of the country\u2019s hake industry now estimated at NAD 3.6 billion (USD 233 million, EUR 197 million).<\/p>\n

For Namibia, the MSC certification comes at an opportune time when the\u00a0fish<\/strong>\u00a0and seafood markets in Europe and North America are increasingly expressing preference for sustainably certified products as consumers buy more of them. A variety of products from the Namibian hake trawl and longline fishery are mainly sold in southern Europe, but with an expanding demand in northern Europe \u201caccess to markets may tend towards more value addition, increasing product opportunities and diversification,\u201d\u00a0according to the Centre for the Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries\u00a0(CBI).<\/p>\n

\u201cVery likely that sustainability and traceability will become increasingly important for fish and seafood as consumers trust certified products more,\u201d the CBI said.<\/p>\n

Stefan Descheemaeker, the CEO of Nomad Foods, which owns Birds Eye, Findus, and Iglo brands,\u00a0said in an MSC press release\u00a0Nomad \u201cwas prepared to buy more hake due to the certification.\u201d The company has committed to sourcing 100 percent of its fish and seafood from sustainable sources by the end of 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith more than 95 percent of our raw material already externally certified, we are increasing our focus on fish species that make up the remainder of our portfolio, including Namibian hake,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have supported the Namibia hake trawl and longline fishery on its certification journey for a number of years and expect to be one of the first companies to bring products made from MSC-certified Namibian hake to European consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fishery\u2019s members still have work to complete to improve its sustainability metrics. The\u00a0fishery<\/strong>\u00a0has a total of 15 conditions around stock, bycatch, and management that it has to meet within five years if it is to keep the certification.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been strong progress in seabird bycatch reduction in the fishery, but there are some outstanding elements that need to be addressed,\u201d Titus Shaanika, a seabird bycatch mitigation instructor from the Albatross Task Force Namibia, said.<\/p>\n

But the milestone with the MSC certification should be celebrated, according to Namibian Fisheries and Marine Resources Minister Albert Kawana. Kawana said the MSC certification, which was initially expected in 2019, was a result of \u201cworking hard to rebuild hake stocks that were historically overfished.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the association pushed for reform, the fishery had been decimated by years of overfishing by foreign fleets, much of which was conducted while the country was still under colonial rule, Kawana said.<\/p>\n

He said the\u00a0fishery\u2019<\/strong>s certification \u201cis an independent endorsement that our efforts are working, and a signal to retailers, brands and fish-lovers around the world \u2013 that Namibian hake is sustainable and here to stay.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A successful endeavor to rebuild Namibia\u2019s hake stocks and eliminate destructive fishing practices has earned the African country\u2019s hake trawl and longline fishery Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification last week. Members of the\u00a0fishery\u00a0say the eco-label will open up more global market opportunities for them, especially in Europe and North America, where demand for sustainably sourced seafood is on the rise. The fishery becomes the first in Namibia and second one in Africa \u2013 after\u00a0the South Africa\u2019s hake trawl fishery\u00a0\u2013 to achieve the MSC standard, a reward for the many years the government and private sector devoted to improving the biodiversity of the Namibian oceans and sustainably maximizing the marine resource, Namibian Hake Association Executive Secretary Ron Wolters said. The Namibian hake fishery was independently assessed by global inspection and certification contractor Control Union, and confirmed to be meeting the three principles of the MSC Fisheries Standard, which includes stock health, environmental impacts and effective management. The fishery scored an average of 80 percent in the 28 performance indicators within the three principles. During the assessment for certification, the Namibian hake fishery exhibited resilience and strong performance backed by \u201cavailability of data for hake stock assessment and harvest strategies, having in place measures to minimize bycatch, a ban on discarding commercial species, presence of measures to minimize impacts on demersal habitats, and an established and transparent rights allocation process,\u201d according to MSC Senior Program Manager for Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia Michael Marriott. The MSC certification is likely to result in \u201cprice premium, access to markets, or even leverage with government,\u201d Marriott said. Marriott told SeafoodSource in an email that the desire for MSC certification by Namibia\u2019s hake-fishing companies could partly be attributed to the \u201cincreasing demand for certified whitefish, particularly in higher-value markets.\u201d \u201cHaving independent verification of environmental performance can influence a fishery\u2019s status in seafood rating systems, and also the likelihood of fulfilling the expectations of supply chain buyers,\u201d he said. Wolters, who serves as a representative of the fishery\u2019s members, confirmed the certification will ease accessibility of certified Namibian hake to global markets such as Europe, where retailers prefer stocking certified fish and seafood products. \u201cHaving the MSC certification means we can get top dollar for high-quality products, and that benefit is kept locally,\u201d he said. The fishery\u2019s hake resource comprise of up 90 percent of the shallow-water hake, while the country\u2019s deeper waters is home to the deep water hake, which is crucial to the freezer trawler fleet,\u00a0according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Namibia now expects to add 160,000 metric tons of certified seafood to the global market expanding further the value of the country\u2019s hake industry now estimated at NAD 3.6 billion (USD 233 million, EUR 197 million). For Namibia, the MSC certification comes at an opportune time when the\u00a0fish\u00a0and seafood markets in Europe and North America are increasingly expressing preference for sustainably certified products as consumers buy more of them. A variety of products from the Namibian hake trawl and longline fishery are mainly sold in southern Europe, but with an expanding demand in northern Europe \u201caccess to markets may tend towards more value addition, increasing product opportunities and diversification,\u201d\u00a0according to the Centre for the Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries\u00a0(CBI). \u201cVery likely that sustainability and traceability will become increasingly important for fish and seafood as consumers trust certified products more,\u201d the CBI said. Stefan Descheemaeker, the CEO of Nomad Foods, which owns Birds Eye, Findus, and Iglo brands,\u00a0said in an MSC press release\u00a0Nomad \u201cwas prepared to buy more hake due to the certification.\u201d The company has committed to sourcing 100 percent of its fish and seafood from sustainable sources by the end of 2025. \u201cWith more than 95 percent of our raw material already externally certified, we are increasing our focus on fish species that make up the remainder of our portfolio, including Namibian hake,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have supported the Namibia hake trawl and longline fishery on its certification journey for a number of years and expect to be one of the first companies to bring products made from MSC-certified Namibian hake to European consumers.\u201d The fishery\u2019s members still have work to complete to improve its sustainability metrics. The\u00a0fishery\u00a0has a total of 15 conditions around stock, bycatch, and management that it has to meet within five years if it is to keep the certification. \u201cThere\u2019s been strong progress in seabird bycatch reduction in the fishery, but there are some outstanding elements that need to be addressed,\u201d Titus Shaanika, a seabird bycatch mitigation instructor from the Albatross Task Force Namibia, said. But the milestone with the MSC certification should be celebrated, according to Namibian Fisheries and Marine Resources Minister Albert Kawana. Kawana said the MSC certification, which was initially expected in 2019, was a result of \u201cworking hard to rebuild hake stocks that were historically overfished.\u201d Before the association pushed for reform, the fishery had been decimated by years of overfishing by foreign fleets, much of which was conducted while the country was still under colonial rule, Kawana said. He said the\u00a0fishery\u2019s certification \u201cis an independent endorsement that our efforts are working, and a signal to retailers, brands and fish-lovers around the world \u2013 that Namibian hake is sustainable and here to stay.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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successful endeavor to rebuild Namibia\u2019s hake stocks and eliminate destructive fishing practices has earned the African country\u2019s hake trawl and longline fishery Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification last week. Members of the\u00a0fishery\u00a0say the eco-label will open up more global market opportunities for them, especially in Europe and North America, where demand for sustainably sourced…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haitrieufood.com\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haitrieufood.com\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haitrieufood.com\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haitrieufood.com\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haitrieufood.com\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3731"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.haitrieufood.com\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4879,"href":"https:\/\/www.haitrieufood.com\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3731\/revisions\/4879"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haitrieufood.com\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haitrieufood.com\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haitrieufood.com\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haitrieufood.com\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}