Sustainability report 

Skretting sustainability performance 2019

12. Committed to the ocean

The ocean is at the heart of our planet. Responsible for regulating global climate, temperature and weather patterns, as well as producing 70% of the oxygen we breathe and absorbing more than 30% of manmade carbon emissions, it is responsible for almost all life on Earth.

Global demand for healthy seafood proteins continues to rise at a rapid rate

While it provides rich habitat for so many known marine animal and plant species, with many more varieties still to be discovered, the ocean also requires very careful protection. A crucial part of this is ensuring that those fish stocks that are caught for direct or indirect human consumption are fished responsibly – within clearly defined sustainable limits. 

Global demand for healthy seafood proteins continues to rise at a rapid rate, and with capture fisheries only capable of contributing modest additional volumes, it is up to aquaculture – one of the fastest-growing food production sectors – to meet most of the market’s increasing needs. 

The expectation from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is that total fish production will reach 201 million tonnes by 2030, compared with 171 million tonnes in 2016. 

To achieve this, the aquaculture harvest will increase from 80 million tonnes to about 110 million tonnes, while capture fisheries production will remain at around 91 million tonnes.

At Skretting, we are committed to providing the platform from which fish and shrimp farmers can elevate their production levels in the most responsible manner possible, and thereby increase both food and economic security. To ensure there is no additional burden placed on the ocean, we continue to invest considerable R&D into the development and application of alternative feed ingredient solutions.

At the same time, with the understanding that by adopting best-practice it is possible to farm seafood in ways that have very little environmental impact, we will work even closer with producers and other stakeholders to implement improvements to farming systems globally and to also safeguard ocean health.

Sea

Signing the UN Global Compact on sustainable oceans

In October 2019, Skretting became an early signatory to the United Nations Global Compact, Sustainable Ocean Principles, calling on companies around the world to commit to securing healthy and productive oceans. By signing up to the compact’s nine core principles, we are committed to taking action to prevent pollution, to manage our use of marine resources to ensure long-term sustainability, and to be transparent in our ocean-related activities and impacts.

Parent company Nutreco has been a member of the UN Global Compact since 2015.

Our endeavours and ambitions – many of which encompass collaborative, multi-stakeholder undertakings – have also been recognised by the World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA). In WBA’s new annual Seafood Stewardship Index, Skretting was ranked as one of the top companies in its list of the 30 most influential seafood businesses, based on the commitment, transparency and performance to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

To drive further innovation in our industry and to ensure the world’s growing population has easy access to more sustainable, healthier and safer seafood, we will strive to identify new key action areas and align those closely together with customers, suppliers and partners.

Read more about this commitment here

Fisher Improvement Projects

Next

12.1 Supporting fishery improvement projects (FIPs)

Great strides have been made by the aquaculture industry to improve its responsible practices in recent years, with substantial efforts particularly focused on encouraging marine ingredient suppliers to ensure that they source raw materials from well-managed, sustainable fisheries.

Read next