Fisheries Committee on Dec. 6th, 2011

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

I call this meeting to order.

I'd like to thank our guests for taking time out of their busy schedules to meet with us today.

We're studying closed containment salmon aquaculture, and we look forward to your thoughts and your views. The committee members, I know, have many questions and look forward to your presentations. Following that, we'll move to committee members' questions.

I'm not sure if the clerk has advised you, but we allot approximately 10 minutes for presentations. It's my understanding we have two presentations here this afternoon, and whenever you are ready we'll move directly to your presentations.

Mr. Scott is going to go first, I believe.

Mr. Scott, whenever you're ready, please proceed.

[Blendle Scott, Vice-President, Innovation and Supply Chain, Overwaitea Food Group]

Good afternoon.

I am here representing the Overwaitea Food Group. We're a chain of grocery supermarkets that do business in British Columbia and Alberta. We have 124 stores. We believe in sustainability. It's the right thing to do, as far as we're concerned, and our customers, we believe, believe in sustainability.

We have three green goals, which are to sell eco-friendly products, to have zero waste, and to have 100% renewable energy.

Some of our goals are as follows. We work with BC Hydro in British Columbia on energy-related matters, and today our stores use about 25% less power than they did in the past. We compost in 41 of our stores. We recycle cardboard and have been doing that since the nineties.

For us, seafood was the next thing that we believed we had to work on. So in 2009 we entered into a partnership with SeaChoice to help us develop our seafood policy. One of our guidelines states that we offer sustainable seafood options and reduced procurement of unsustainable seafood. We want to offer our customers more sustainable salmon choices.

When we went looking for more sustainable salmon choices, there were very few options available to us. But in 2010 we found a partner to provide us with closed contained salmon; that partner happened to be AquaSeed, and the product they sell is called SweetSpring salmon. It is a U.S. company, so a Canadian company now has to import U.S. fish to provide sustainable seafood for our consumers.

On the economics of it, the first thing we have to realize is that seafood is one of the most expensive proteins on the market, especially fresh salmon. We currently sell a significant amount of closed contained salmon. While today it is not quite as profitable as farmed penned salmon, it certainly is a viable alternative.

Our cost for farmed salmon is slightly more than for the net penned salmon that we've sold in the past, but supply and demand play a big role in the costing, the pricing. Closed containment farms now are very small. The two we looked at in British Columbia were too small to even provide part of our needs.

As the enterprise gets larger, certainly we believe that our cost price for contained salmon, farmed salmon, land-based, will be near the cost that we currently pay for Atlantic salmon. Actually, when we made the deal for the closed contained salmon, it cost exactly the same as Atlantic salmon, but of course it's on the commodities market and supply and demand affect Atlantic penned salmon as well.

Today we sell more salmon than we did a year ago, and that includes fresh salmon, it includes frozen wild salmon from mostly British Columbia and Alaska, and also closed containment salmon.

From a customer's perspective, I think they understand the concept of sustainability. They want a grocery store they can trust and they want to be able to trust us around the store, and that would include our sustainable policy around seafood. Do they specifically understand what sustainability means? I think a few do. They understand that we have to acquire products that are sustainable in the long term.

Customers want salmon. They want it now. They will want it 10 years from now and 15 years from now. They also do not want a season around salmon. Most of the purchases, or 70% of the purchases, are fresh. It's a premium product that's a treat for dinner. If you look at salmon, it's a very expensive protein. This week, as an example, we're selling it for about $18 a kilogram for a fillet, and we're selling New York strip for $11 a kilogram.

Salmon is a relatively expensive protein, but they want it year round, and they want it fresh.

As we've moved down the road of selling fresh, frozen, and closed containment salmon, we've actually had no negative feedback from our customers because of the fact that we have less Atlantic penned salmon available for them. They choose the product by quality. They choose it, to some extent, by price. We've had very positive outcomes from our choice to sell sustainable seafood.

That's pretty much all I have.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Thank you very much.

I'm not sure who's next, Ms. Roebuck or Ms. Beukema.

We'll go to Ms. Roebuck, please.

[Kelly Roebuck, Representative, SeaChoice]

Good afternoon.

I want to thank the chairman and committee members for undertaking this important study and for the invitation to present to you today on closed containment from a market's perspective.

I'm Kelly Roebuck, the sustainable seafood campaign manager at Living Oceans Society. I'm a representative for both SeaChoice and the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform programs.

I'll start with some background on my organization and SeaChoice. Living Oceans Society is a non-profit formed in 1998 and is based in the small fishing community of Sointula on north Vancouver Island. We are the largest organization in Canada focusing exclusively on marine conservation issues. SeaChoice is a natural, sustainable seafood program formed in 2006 by Canadian Parks and Wilderness Service B.C., the Sierra Club B.C., the David Suzuki Foundation, the Ecology Action Centre, and the Living Oceans Society.

SeaChoice was formed to help Canadian consumers and businesses take an active role in supporting sustainable fisheries and aquaculture at all levels of the supply chain. Working in collaboration with the Monterey Bay Aquarium seafood watch program, SeaChoice undertakes purely science-based seafood assessments. Our business work includes helping food service suppliers such as Albion Fisheries, who will be presenting later today, I believe, and major retailers such as Safeway, Federated Co-op, and Overwaitea Food Group here today.

I will be presenting to the committee an overview of the market's change that has occurred in North America in the last five-plus years for sustainable seafood, with particular reference to closed containment farmed salmon. Understanding the North American major buyer's sustainability commitments, shifting needs, and seafood buying policies can be challenging, and I aim to bring some clarity on this today. Hopefully available to the committee is the PowerPoint entitled “The Sustainable Seafood Policy Era”, provided beforehand.

The North American marketplace has seen a recent influx of seafood sustainability messaging from branding, certifications, and eco logos. For farmed salmon in particular, there are a number of certifications in place or in draft from Global Trust, Global Aquaculture Alliance, Aquaculture Stewardship Council, and various organic standards. These are just a few examples of the many. Overall, presently, there are approximately around 70-plus sustainable seafood logos and certifications worldwide.

I'd like to speak to how we got here today. In 2002, only two major retailers in North America had a sustainable seafood policy of some sort. We fast forward to 2011 and now nearly all but a few do. Within three short years, we now have about 25 major North American retailers with sustainable seafood policies. It is obviously now common practice and part of a retailer's corporate social responsibility ethics. Why is this important to listen to? The large buyer is holding a unique position of economic, social, and political influence. Ultimately, they determine the seafood choices available to consumers. If you refer to the tables in my PowerPoint, you can see that most retailers' sustainable seafood policies are in partnership with the conservation organization, or they at least refer to NGOs for input or rankings for guidance.

In any case, there is one theme that all of these sustainable seafood policies and NGO partnerships have in common, and that is the common vision. Let me explain what the common vision is. Sixteen conservation organizations from the United Sates and Canada partnered in 2008 to pursue a common vision for sustainable seafood and worked together as the Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions. We have heard from companies that there was a lot of competing information on sustainable seafood. They needed consistent advice on how to move forward.

The common vision for environmentally sustainable seafood outlines six realistic steps that companies can take to develop and implement a sustainable seafood policy. The ultimate goal is to preserve the health of ocean or freshwater eco-systems and ensure a long-term seafood supply for these major buyers. The common vision provides a path businesses can take to move towards that goal, and the organizations in the Conservation Alliance are committed to working with companies as they take steps to achieve it.

Here is just a quick overview of what the six common vision steps are. In groups such as Overwaitea, this is part of the sustainable seafood policy, as well as those 25-plus North American major buyers I referred to earlier.

The six steps are: make a commitment to have a corporate sustainable seafood policy; collect data on seafood products; buy environmentally responsible seafood; make product information publicly available; educate customers, suppliers, employees; and support reform to improve fisheries and aquaculture management.

There are 16 conservation organizations from the United States and Canada, partnered to pursue a common vision for companies. Many of these retailers, as part of the sustainable seafood policies, have also committed to a 100% sustainable buy timeline. For example, what is being publicly announced includes timelines from Safeway, Target, and Overwaitea of 2015. Loblaws has announced 2013.

Phasing out of unsustainable seafood is a challenge, but retailers are committed to tackling this. The largest challenge is finding a sustainable alternative for red-listed seafood such as farmed shrimp and open-net farmed salmon.

Open-net farmed salmon remains red, or unsustainable, by the environmental community in North America. Retailers need a sustainable alternative to switch their procurement to. Demand for sustainably farmed salmon, such as closed containment, is high. In fact, demand outweighs the supply right now.

We are seeing that major buyers in North America are now the driving force behind sustainable seafood. In relation to farmed salmon, we have seen Target and Compass Group Canada, for example, completely remove farmed salmon from all of their locations. Other retailers are changing their procurement over to closed containment farmed salmon, including Overwaitea. The supply for sustainably farmed salmon still does not meet the demand, in which retailers committing to 100% sustainable buy timelines provide a unique opportunity for Canada to become a leader in our closed containment technology.

Thank you again for this opportunity to speak on this important issue.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Thank you very much. Now we'll move right into questions.

Mr. Kamp, let's start off.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for appearing before us. We appreciate your information and the opportunity to ask you a few questions.

At Overwaitea Food Group, it wasn't clear to me whether your salmon choices in your store are completely closed containment or whether you still sell open-net pen Atlantic salmon.

[Blendle Scott]

We sell very little open-net pen salmon product today. We took a marketing and merchandising approach that we would promote wild, frozen, and closed containment salmon. We do have a small amount of Atlantic salmon available today.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

Okay. Is there a reason that you haven't, if it's a matter of principle, given up on that?

[Blendle Scott]

There are a few products that were left in our inventory—mostly smoked—that we currently carry today. It will not be available probably within the next two or three weeks.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

Do you receive complaints from your customers about the fact that you sell farmed salmon that's not coming from closed containment facilities?

[Blendle Scott]

Do we receive complaints? I'm not sure I understand your question.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

You've made this decision, you say, to sell closed containment products, but you still sell some of the others. Was that decision driven by complaints from your customers or from some philosophical position coming from head office? What was the process for arriving at this decision?

[Blendle Scott]

When we partnered with our NGO, SeaChoice, we were advised of a list of products. We made a promise that we would not increase our procurement of those products. In a lot of cases, we completely discontinued them as we found alternatives that were acceptable to our customers. Of the products that we no longer carry, we've attempted to find alternatives. In the case of salmon, we were able to supplement our salmon availability to our customers with fresh, wild salmon, frozen wild salmon, and closed containment salmon. In fact, we've never sold more salmon.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

You also sell Pacific salmon. In fact, maybe it's likely that much of your Pacific salmon comes from Alaska. Is that true?

[Blendle Scott]

It would be part of the supply chain—Alaska, British Columbia.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

Is there any concern that much of that salmon comes from hatchery-raised facilities and is then ocean-ranched and set out into the wild? Is there any concern from you or your SeaChoice partners on that issue?

[Kelly Roebuck]

I can speak to the methodology that is used when it comes to the wild assessments. Currently the Monterey Bay Aquarium is having a look at their methodology and is currently upgrading and will be putting out a new version soon.

As part of that new version, there will be updated assessments, including possibly looking at stock-by-stock cases for wild B.C. and wild Alaskan salmon. That would be a consideration in that criteria.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

Okay. Maybe I can ask you a few questions as well, Kelly.

We've heard the word “sustainability” throughout this study, but certainly today as well. You look for sustainable products. This is what puzzles me a little bit: when it comes to Atlantic salmon, “farmed” equals “unsustainable”, in your view—at least, it ends up on your list of products to avoid. So I guess—

[Kelly Roebuck]

Can I just clarify?

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

Well, let me just—

[Kelly Roebuck]

That would be open-net farmed salmon, not all farmed salmon.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

I think we understand that.

Let me ask you this question, then. Your decision about sustainability and farmed salmon is based on what facts? I don't want to know just that environmentalists think it's unsustainable. Surely you must base this on some coherent scientific facts, and we would probably like to hear those.

The follow-up question would be this, if I can leave you with these: how transparent is your process? Your SeaChoice, or you seafood choice, whatever it's called there—sorry—is the guide. It basically says that every Atlantic farmed salmon in the world is unsustainable. So how transparent...? When you make those decisions, are the fisheries involved in this? Do they get to make a case? Do you think there might be one fish farm somewhere, nicely located or something, that might actually meet your sustainability requirements?

It just surprises me that there would be this sort of blanket decision that every farmed salmon everywhere in the world is now on your unsustainable list. I would just like to know if that process of arriving at that decision is transparent in any way. I mean, is it available to the public, or do we just see the thing we carry in our wallet or purse?

[Kelly Roebuck]

If you go to seachoice.org, you can download the full assessment with all of the scientific references to do with this particular open-net farmed salmon report that was done by the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

As I said earlier, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which has the same methodology that SeaChoice uses for Canadian fisheries and farms, is currently being upgraded to a second version. On an ongoing basis, we do take a look at the list of assessments we have and update them on a regular basis as new information comes in, as new data comes in, etc.

Now whether it comes with a new methodology.... Currently with the methodology, we have it peer-reviewed. That can include industry and that can include independent scientists, academic scientists, etc. With the new methodology, we are looking at greater stakeholder engagement; that will include from the beginning when we're actually collecting the data, and that will be up until the end when it's peer-reviewed. So there will be greater stakeholder engagement coming, and we do currently have that in place, where we reach out to industry, etc.

In reference to open-net farmed salmon science in particular, I would refer you to the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform, which has literature and 50-plus science-reviewed reports that you can download. That's at farmedanddangerous.org.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

Yes, we've seen all those.

Thank you for your testimony.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Thank you very much, Mr. Kamp.

Mr. Donnelly.