The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is planning to expand its operations in Poland, the council revealed in a press release today.
The MSC has joined forces with BalticSea2020 foundation in order to launch its new program in Poland.
The program will see a number of targets met over the next three years in order to build a more sustainable fishing industry in the region and to provide Polish consumers with more opportunity to choose ecolabelled seafood.
“Our goal is to help the Polish seafood industry compete in a global marketplace that is seeking out credible, certified products,” said Anna Debicka, MSC project manager for Poland who will be delivering the strategy.
Within the next three years the MSC plan to engage 85 Polish supply chain companies, increase the number of MSC labelled products from 200 to 600 and see at least two fishing organisation become certified to its environmental standard for well-managed and sustainable fisheries.
The MSC is also planning to build relations with scientific institutes, government bodies and conservation organisations to turn them into active supporters of fisheries and businesses seeking assessments and certification.
The MSC will target the awareness of seafood sustainability among Polish consumers in order to grow domestic demand for certified products.
The agreement between the MSC and BalticSea2020 will “deepen our engagement with this vital sector in Poland and with our partners, help promote the continuing transformation of the European seafood market to a sustainable basis,” said Camiel Derichs, MSC European director.
Poland is responsible for 100,000 metric tons of annual catches and hosts many processing facilities that provide markets worldwide.
More than 50 Polish processing and trading companies are currently certified to MSC’s Chain of Custody standard.