"Well, honestly, the biggest surprise I think looking at was when I first went into it, NGOs were the enemy,” said Raley’s Seafood Buyer Mike Loftus at the panel A Retailers Guide to Sustainable Seafood.
The audience snickered.
A nautically themed statue at the at the Boston Convention & Exhibition CenterLoftus, a member of FMI’s Sustainable Seafood Working Group was talking about the biggest surprise he encountered when he starting working on developing sustainable seafood practices. He said he had thought NGOs were out there to put him out of business, but when he sat done with some of these folks, he realized they are not all the enemy.
“They understand that we have issues and that we have to sell product to survive. And for sustainable seafood to be successful, we have to be able to sell product and be able to communicate with consumers why we sell the product.”
FMI Senior Director of Sustainability & Industry Relations Jeanne von Zastrow announced that FMI is going to be releasing a new industry tool kit for retailers on May 1 at the FMI’s convention in Dallas. The report will be available for free and include information from retailer working group members who have successfully implemented sustainability seafood programs. The report will include guidelines, checklists, best practices, and will be available for free on FMI's website.
