News Release

Result of the survey of marine resources regarding level of sustainability of seafood the Nissui Group handles

2018/09/28

Nippon Suisan Kaisha, Ltd. (Nissui: President & CEO Akiyo Matono, Minato-ku, Tokyo) has completed the first survey of marine resources regarding level of sustainability of seafood the Nissui Group handles covering all the species handled in 2016 by Nissui and its 44 group companies.

Nissui, which is promoting management based on CSR, has been addressing social agenda including preservation of marine environment, sustainability of marine resources and CSR procurement by holding out the policy of "preserve the bounty of the sea and promote sustainable usage and procurement of marine resources" as one of materiality.
As a preliminary step toward achieving the materiality, Nissui regarded it important to gain an understanding of status quo of the marine resources all the Nissui Group handles and conducted the survey.

According to FAO*1 survey, marine resources available for catch have been decreasing. There are growing concerns about overfishing and depletion of marine resources.

Nissui use this survey result to examine whether the Nissui Group should continue handling species with insufficient or unknown resource condition and thus to increase sustainability of the business of all the Nissui Group eventually. Nissui will continue the survey periodically from now.
Nissui is aiming to achieve the goal that "sustainability of all of the seafood the Nissui Group procures are confirmed until 2030", and this survey is the basic of achieving the goal.

Please find the result of the survey as follows:

Summary of the survey

Candidate companies
Nissui and its 44 group companies (28 domestic & 16 overseas)
Period
Entire year in 2016
Survey content
Specie name (scientific name), Ocean area, Country of origin, GWT
Survey Method
Aggregate the data of wild catch seafood by examining with FAO and FISHSOURCE*2 information

Survey result

  1. (1)Please find a summary of seafood the Nissui Group handles as follows:
    1. 1.Total volume: 1.6 million GWT*3. Approximately 1.6% of total wild catch of the world.
    2. 2.Number of species: 450 by scientific name
    3. 3.Ocean area: 18 areas by FAO definition
    4. 4.Country of origin: Approximately 80 countries
    5. 5.Ratio of wild catch vs. farmed: Wild catch 93%, Farmed 7%
  2. (2)Resource condition of wild catch the Nissui Group handles
    1. 1.Healthy : 1,333,301 GWT (88%)
      Species with sustainability certificates including MSC*4
      Pollock in North America and Russia, Hoki in New Zealand, etc.
      Species by the evaluation by FAO and FISHSOURCE
      Sardine in Chile, Anchovy in Peru, Sockeye Salmon in Russia, Mackerel in Japan,
      etc.
    2. 2.Not healthy & Unclear: 181,363 GWT (12%)
    3. 3.Breakdown of Not healthy & Unclear (12%)
      3.2%: Not healthy species with resource recovery program and a certain level of fishing restriction including fishing period and fish net control.
      8.8%: Unclear species without information regarding country level fishery management program.

Agendas and future efforts

  1. (1)Nissui will move ahead with following actions regarding marine resources including the ones which were categorized as "Healthy" with this survey.
    1. A.Collect up to date data and continue watching situation including resource recovery program, fishnet control, fishing period and with or without resource management program.
    2. B.Observe policy of fishing countries especially regarding IUU fishery and slave labor.
  2. (2)Nissui will make a proposal through SeaBOS*5 to the fishing countries with unknown information of fishery management program to start scientific resource management.
  3. (3)Nissui starts discussing the measures to be taken to promote a disclosure of traceability of fish meal and fish oil, which are categorized as "Unclear" in this survey by studying advanced initiatives in the world.
  4. (4)Nissui will cooperate to achieve GDST*6.
  1. *1FAO: Food and Agriculture Organization
    http://www.fao.org/home/en
  2. *2FISHSOURCE: Research tool based on scientific analysis of public information, able to find out the resource and fishery management condition by species
    https://www.fishsource.org/
  3. *3GWT: Green Weight Ton
  4. *4MSC: Marine Stewardship Council
    https://www.wwf.or.jp/activities/basicinfo/3555.html
  5. *5SeaBos: Seafood Business for Ocean Stewardship
    http://keystonedialogues.earth/
  6. *6GDST: Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability
    Dialogue to establish global standard of traceability of seafood from fishery to sale led by WWF

End of Document