Balfegó becomes a global partner of the International Association to promote the sustainability of fishery products

Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative (GSSI) brings together more than 90 members from governments, companies, NGOs, and international organizations, including FAO.

Balfegó, a company that deals in the fishing, care, study, and marketing of bluefin tuna, is now a member of Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative (GSSI), a public/private partnership of more than 90 members from governments, companies, NGOs, and organizations, including FAO. GSSI monitors and accredits business sustainability standards to promote everyday collaboration and greater sustainability among all the actors of the fishery products value chain.

Balfegó has become a founding partner of Seafood MAP, a new GSSI initiative to collect and give visibility to all the projects involving fisheries and aquaculture whose common denominator is sustainability. This initiative is currently addressing the creation of a global and inclusive digital platform that will bring together such projects, giving transparency to the policies and actions in favor of the environment.

As a founding partner, Balfegó will participate in setting the eligibility requirements and creating this new platform, contributing its expertise and knowledge based on the experience gained throughout all its processes, ranging from the capture and care to the marketing pf bluefin tuna. Balfegó implements the only sea-to-table traceability system in the fishing industry.

Seafood MAP currently has about thirty members; besides Balfegó, these include the Spanish companies Nueva Pescanova and Iberostar. The initial phase of setting requirements and creating the platform is scheduled to launch in 2023. Over the next phase, Seafood MAP will act as an auditor for these projects, to verify their impact and value in terms of fisheries sustainability.

The platform, which will monitor and give visibility to new business initiatives in terms of sustainability, is an answer to the evolution of the fishing sector and the needs of increasing consumer demand for products with sustainable origin, as well as the evolution of recent new technologies providing a new world of possibilities for sustainability projects in this sector.

As stated by Balfegó CEO Juan Serrano, “social and environmental sustainability is one of the pillars of our business, in addition to our excellent product”. This is why we have decided to partner with GSSI, one of the world’s most prestigious fishing sector institutions. We are working on obtaining certificates for the auditing, accreditation, and recognition of a job well done in each of our production processes and being part of GSSI is a great step towards that goal”.