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THE Basque company Pescafria-Pesquera Rodríguez is the first Spanish fishery to obtain MSC certification.
It is also the first European Union Barents Sea cod fishery to be awarded this distinction. The announcement was made at a press conference attended by Basque government representatives.
Over the course of a year, a group of experts from Food Certification International scrutinised and analysed Pescafria’s cod fishing operations, assessing the fishery on the basis of the three MSC environmental principles with regard to sustainable fish stocks (in this case, northeast Arctic cod), environmental impact on the marine ecosystem, and the effective management of fishing operations.
The certificate was given in recognition of a fishing strategy based on professionalism and on respect for marine resources. Cod caught by the company can now be sold with the MSC ecolabel, already widely-sought by consumers in northern European markets and increasingly in Spain too.
The family-owned company was founded in 1940 and has its headquarters in the Basque Country and Galicia. It holds 27.50% of the Spanish cod quota, which translates into approximately 4000 tonnes – the largest national quota. The UK is the company’s major market for seafood products and frozen cod fillets, while they also export to France, Holland, Norway and Portugal. A small part of their production, including salt cod and frozen cod fillets, is marketed in Spain.
Pescafria Manager Francisco Rodriguez became aware of the MSC programme and ecolabel through the certification of pollack fisheries in Alaska. In his opinion, “Getting MSC certification consolidates our position in export markets increasingly aware of the need to consume wild fishery seafood products, which are the only really sustainable products. Contrary to what we usually hear, and thanks to proper management over the years, cod stocks in the Arctic Ocean are actually at record numbers. This guarantees supplies of a fish which plays such a major role in our gastronomic traditions for future generations.”
Jon Azkue, Basque Regional Minister for Fisheries and the Food Industry, called for “sustainability to guarantee the future of fish stocks and of fishing”, and underlined the Basque government’s “full commitment to the scientific study of the oceans and ocean species, something we are doing at AZTI-Tecnalia with a view to basing all fishing-related decisions on real understanding.”
Azkue highlighted the reasons why the Basque Government have supported the certification process: "Our reason for taking part can be summed up quite simply: we favour the ecocertification route, because it ties in with our policy on fisheries, a policy we would like to see implemented in the Basque fishing sector as a whole".
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