Floundering Around

A comparative review of how 49 leading European supermarket chains are positioned on the critical topic of sustainability in aquaculture supply chains based on years of research.

Supermarket Scorecards

Ranking supermarkets in six European countries on their efforts to tackle the use of wild fish in their aquaculture supply chains

Comparative Review 2021

A comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of how the sector is positioned on three topics that are critical to the sustainability of the aquaculture industry with clear recommedations for retailers:

Feed

  • Phase out the use of wild-caught fish as feed for aquaculture in your supply chain. Commit to doing this by 2025 at the latest. and report on progress.
  • For retailers present in several countries, establish consistent and ambitious group-level policies on feed rather than allowing national subsidiaries to pick and choose.

Fish Welfare

  • Introduce strict and specific requirements for suppliers to ensure that farmed fish and seafood species are reared and slaughtered humanely.
  • Blacklist farms that have consistently high fish mortality rates, as this often indicates poor farming practices and issues with fish welfare.
  • For retailers present in several countries, establish consistent and ambitious group-level policies on welfare rather than allowing national subsidiaries to pick and choose.

Transparency

  • Introduce greater transparency for consumers by improving labelling in line with customers’ right to know the origin of the farmed fish they buy, the origin and composition of what it was fed, and how it was reared.
  • For retailers present in several countries, establish consistent and ambitious group-level policies on transparency rather than allowing national subsidiaries to pick and choose.
  • Phase out the use of wild-caught fish as feed for aquaculture in your supply chain. Commit to doing this by 2025 at the latest. and report on progress.
  • For retailers present in several countries, establish consistent and ambitious group-level policies on feed rather than allowing national subsidiaries to pick and choose.
  • Introduce strict and specific requirements for suppliers to ensure that farmed fish and seafood species are reared and slaughtered humanely.
  • Blacklist farms that have consistently high fish mortality rates, as this often indicates poor farming practices and issues with fish welfare.
  • For retailers present in several countries, establish consistent and ambitious group-level policies on welfare rather than allowing national subsidiaries to pick and choose.
  • Introduce greater transparency for consumers by improving labelling in line with customers’ right to know the origin of the farmed fish they buy, the origin and composition of what it was fed, and how it was reared.
  • For retailers present in several countries, establish consistent and ambitious group-level policies on transparency rather than allowing national subsidiaries to pick and choose.

The global aquaculture industry supplied a mere 5% of fish in the 1980s.

It now supplies over half of the fish we eat and by 2030 it is estimated that 62% of all seafood produced and destined for our dinner plates will be farmed.

Retailers have huge power to drive positive change in fish farming

Most EU citizens – 77% – buy fish from either a grocery store, supermarket or hypermarket. The total turnover of all European food retailers in 2018 was €3.5 trillion.

In 2018, 18 million tonnes of global fish catches were used to make fishmeal and fish oil (FMFO)

That's roughly one-fifth of the world's annual marine fish landings. Most of it is used to feed the growing aquaculture industry.

Not all aquaculture requires the use of wild-caught fish

However, resource-intensive fed aquaculture (such as Atlantic salmon, trout, sea bass, gilt-head bream or shrimp) has far outpaced non-fed aquaculture, making up nearly 70% of all aquaculture production in 2018.

According to the UN, without significant changes, we are at risk of pushing more than half of our planet’s marine species to the brink of extinction by the year 2100

The impact on fish stocks is already visible among some of the pelagic fish species, which are used to feed the global aquaculture sector.

There are growing concerns about the impact of fish farming on fish welfare

Analysis published in February 2021 reveals high mortality rates on salmon farms where data is available. Compassion in World Farming calculates that between 2012 and 2017, an average of 24.2% of fish reared on Scottish salmon farms died prematurely every year.

Consumers are increasingly questioning the welfare of the fish they eat and the impact industrial aquaculture and overfishing have on the environment and marine life

A 2018 survey showed four in five people (79%) believed the welfare of fish should be protected to the same extent as the welfare of other animals we eat.

Find out the full results in the report

Download report