The report, 'Ethical issues impacting on the UK seafood supply chain’, produced by ethics consultant Roger Plant for Seafish, looked at 15 regions supplying the UK market and focused on social issues surrounding human rights and the labour rights of fishermen.
Ethical issues are of serious concern and recent media reports, such as the Slavery at Sea in Thailand, have brought these issues to light, said Mr Plant.
We are now seeing a shift from environment to social in terms of seafood sustainability, he continued.
As well as a risk assessment profile for each region, mostly in South East Asia, the report provides analysis of the risks as well as ten strategic recommendations on how the seafood industry can help to improve conditions on fishing vessels and along the supply chain.
Revealing some of the key recommendations, Mr Plant said that working together and intelligence sharing of information and auditing of findings is very important if we are to solve this issue.
Other recommendations included being proactive in reporting and conducting better and more in-depth fact finding/investigations.
We also need to work towards a code of conduct on social responsibility and ethics for the seafood industry, Mr Plant concluded.
