Status of Traceability between the

Global North and South

Why the Disparity; Levers to Improve

Panel: Meeting the Challenges to Certification, Traceability and Consumer Awareness in the Southern HemispherePresented by: Momo Kochen, Director of Programs and Science, MDPI

Photo Credit: Fair Trade USA

What is Traceability?

“Traceability is the ability to access any or all information relating to that which is under consideration, throughout its entire life cycle, by means of recorded identifications”

Sound Simple?

Traceability: Following the Flow of Fish

Distributing

Processing

Shipping

Retailer

Landing

Traceability: from a global North perspective

Consumer: Informational Demand

- Food safety

- IUU/ Sustainability

- Provenance

- Increased awareness means increased attention

But will the consumer pay more?

Industry: Competitive Advantage

- Insuring Market access

- Mitigating Risk and decreasing losses

- Consumer facing options

Industry: Operational Efficiency

- Sophisticated integrated operational systems (ERPs)

- Technology development

Traceability: from a global South perspective

Regulatory Demands

- Food safety regulations as basic

- International regulations (catch certificate, Certificate of origin)

Supply chain Demand

- Varied requirements requested buyer dependent

- Increased emphasis on certifications (BRC etc)

- Baseline needs are shifting

Implementation demands

- price of systems

- complexity of systems

- Complex supply chains (many actors, small volumes)

- Small scale fisheries/ inefficient production lots

Disparity: Why?

Effort Benefit

N

S

S

S N

N

N

S

Levers for Change: International

Traceability

Transparency

Levers for Change: International

• 44% of American retailers and restaurants sold mislabelled seafood

• 26-87% mislabelling occurring for common species

• Snapper (87%) and tuna (59%) most commonly mislabelled fish types

• 84% of white tuna samples found to be escolar

• 74% of food items in Sushi outlets mislabelled

Levers for Change: Regional Indonesia

Pilot project: Suitability of the PVR for small scale vessels

GPS tracking by satellite: a VMS option for small scale vessels?

Innovative data generation and technology development pilot for small scale fishery

Wageningen University led IFITT: Innovative traceability and fisheries data assimilation for management

Thank you