Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The BC Seafood Alliance is an umbrella organization whose 30 members represent fisheries accounting for about 90% of the value of wild seafood from Canada's Pacific coast. Our members are associations representing commercial fishermen, licence-holders and vessel owners and operators in all major fisheries in B.C., with vessels ranging from less than 30 feet to over 150 feet. We also represent most of the major seafood processors, which account for at least 70% of salmon, herring and groundfish production, as well as some specialty products, making us by far the most representative commercial fishing organization on the west coast.
I'm going to provide some context on seafood traceability from both the harvester and the processor perspectives. It is our view that for this part of the supply chain there is a robust system already in place. Let me give you the example of groundfish. Roughly two-thirds of west coast groundfish commercial harvests are managed under the Canadian groundfish integrated program, which integrates the management of 66 different species, seven different fisheries and three gear types.
Each vessel is fully accountable for every single fish it catches, whether retained or released, through a monitoring program that requires 100% electronic monitoring or at-sea observers and 100% dockside validation before the catch goes to the processing plant. Other fisheries have somewhat similar systems and are also developing additional consumer-level traceability systems to discourage illegal product from recreational or FSC fisheries. You may remember that the prawn tubbing issue began with the development of such a traceability system.
Virtually all B.C. seafood processors, as well as some fishing vessels, are federally registered with the CFIA under the safe food for Canadians regulations and for export, which requires the lot code, date of catch, common name, origin of harvest, etc. These are passed on to customers as the minimum requirements to ensure timely and effective recall of products if necessary.
On the west coast, we export about 85% of production, and export customers have different systems and different traceability requirements that exporters must fulfill. In addition, most processing plants maintain Marine Stewardship Council chain of custody certification. The annual audit looks at the plant's overall traceability system to ensure it can segregate MSC certified product from non-certified.
Both harvester and processor members are committed to best practices, and they rank highly on a global scale thanks to robust systems. We certainly believe that consumers, whether domestic or export, have the right to know with confidence that they are getting what they paid for—clearly labelled, safe and healthy Canadian seafood that is sustainably harvested.
We know that in our export markets, the Canadian reputation is first rate. One of my members, for instance, provides a certificate of authenticity that Japanese retailers use as a marketing tool.
We would encourage the committee to focus on the gaps in the system rather than on trying to introduce a new and costly system that will never meet the needs of our customers, domestic or export. Those gaps, on this coast, are illegally harvested product entering the small-scale retail and food service market; mislabelling, particularly in small-scale retail and food service; and imports.
I remind you that CFIA's 2021 report found almost no evidence of mislabelling, with a 92% compliance rate, with domestic processors at 96%.
Seafood is not cheap but it is good for you, so let's not add to the cost. Let's target the gaps in the system and not the system itself.
Thank you very much, everyone.