Thank you, Mr. Chair, committee members, fellow witnesses and participants.
I want to thank the committee for inviting me to speak about the seafood industry and traceability. Being from Nova Scotia, where the fish and seafood industry plays a large role in our economy, I feel very privileged to be speaking to you today.
Over the years, many reports in Canada have suggested that seafood fraud cases are rampant here. We believe that anywhere between 25% to 60% of fish and seafood served at restaurants in Canada is mislabelled, and up to 10% to 15% of fish and seafood products sold at retail in Canada is also mislabelled. While seafood fraud is a global problem, Canada is known to be lagging in food traceability overall when benchmarked to other countries.
For this committee today, I would like to make the following overarching, principal recommendations for a stronger traceability program for seafood in the country.
Recommendation number one is that the fish and seafood industries are a global enterprise. Any comprehensive approach to traceability would need to accept this as fact. The current deficit of standard informational obligations in seafood leads to lack of interoperability. This, in turn, diminishes transparency and thus inhibits traceability. This issue impacts business efficiency and enables the conditions that can lead to illicit activity. Many technologies exist, but they don’t go far enough. If we are to believe that sustainable fishing is possible, programs like the not-for-profit Marine Stewardship Council, which I think you're inviting to this committee, can discipline the entire industry while reassuring the public. Such a model transcends borders. This strict supply chain certification, which uses random DNA tests, helps ensure that MSC-certified seafood is always labelled correctly and kept separate from non-certified options. It is a worthy model. The use of such a model should be encouraged.
Recommendation number two is that traceability is a tool. It already has demonstrated benefits in other industries such as pharmaceuticals, automotive, high tech and aeronautics. At first, regulatory food safety-related requirements pushed more adoption of traceability systems and practices, but the business and financial benefits related to food integrity will drive and sustain its use. Many technologies already exist, but the focus has mainly been one-up, one-down. In fish and seafood that's not enough. Today, food integrity and the threat of food fraud is certainly a motivating factor, and based on our research, food integrity has more market currency today than food safety. Rewarding companies that adopt better transversal traceability practices would be a step forward. Encouraging the use of technologies like machine vision, the Internet of things and blockchain to automate the processes and take human error or deception out of the equation would be key.
Recommendation number three is that seafood businesses that are committed to maximizing the value they deliver to consumers are already using relevant, dependable and readily accessible data about their products to gain a competitive advantage and grow their businesses. While globally there has been some progress on mitigating illegal, unreported or unregulated fishing, recent information suggests that awareness of the consequences of illicit activity is not deterring offenders. Perhaps Canadians are uninformed of the problem, so building public awareness about food fraud would be key.
I'd like to thank the committee for listening to me. These are my main recommendations. I would welcome any questions the committee has at this time.