Focus Group Workshop and World Café event, May 18-19th, FAO, Rome - Competitiveness and Sustainable Sourcing in Europe for Fish and Seafood

How can the fish industry motivate sustainable sourcing of fish and seafood? What is the role of certification schemes? Are international guidelines and policies sufficient to promote the sustainable development of the fisheries and aquaculture industries? What are the bottlenecks? Where are the gaps? Where are the opportunities and the way forward? These were some of the questions that the invited participants were challenged with at the SUCCESS project´s “Co-creation platform” in Rome.

The objective of the focus group workshop was to bring stakeholders to the project to exchange their views, provide an overview on the current initiatives and practices and give insight to their vision on how to enhance the competitiveness and sustainability. The workshop was divided into four sessions where participants identified bottlenecks and shared their views on opportunities to motivate sustainable sourcing in practice. The World Café further addressed the benefits and drawbacks of certification schemes, measures to combat IUU and discussed policy options, with the aim to identify gaps where more research and activities were needed. Participants came from seafood industries, retail, sustainability initiatives, fisheries associations, FAO, DG Mare of the European Commission, as well as representatives of certification schemes and accreditation bodies on sustainable fishing and aquaculture.