Floundering Around

The report finds that European retailers are failing to perform adequate due diligence on their farmed fish supply chains, with 76% landing in a 'red zone' of poor performance. No surveyed retailer has a clear target to eliminate wild-caught fish in feed, and none have policies to blacklist farms with high mortality rates. While some UK retailers show progress in transparency through the Ocean Disclosure Project, overall industry standards for fish welfare and labelling remain inadequate, often relying on insufficient third-party certifications.

• The vast majority of surveyed European retailers demonstrate a critical lack of substantive policies regarding sustainable aquaculture, with 76% of the 33 retailers assessed falling into the 'red zone' of performance.
• No European retailer surveyed has established a clear target date for the total elimination of wild-caught fish (fishmeal and fish oil) from their aquaculture feed supply chains.
• Retailers are failing to implement policies to blacklist aquaculture producers with excessive mortality rates, despite high death rates in sectors like salmon farming.
• There is a significant lack of transparency in labelling; 27% of responding retailers do not include the producer or farm name on fish labels and do not require public reporting on feed composition or origin.
• UK retailers are the most progressive regarding supply chain transparency, with eight of the ten top UK supermarket chains disclosing farmed fish supply chain information via the Ocean Disclosure Project.
• The report argues that retailers over-rely on third-party certification schemes (such as ASC, MSC, or MarinTrust) which are deemed inadequate proxies for actual due diligence on fish welfare and feed sourcing.
• The use of wild-caught fish for aquafeed has severe impacts on food security in the Global South; for example, over half a million tonnes of fish from West African waters are converted to fishmeal annually instead of feeding local populations.
• In India, the production of farmed prawns drives significant demand for fishmeal, with estimates suggesting one-third of India's annual marine fish catches are used to feed farmed prawns.

APA

Changing Markets Foundation (2021). Floundering Around. https://changingmarkets.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/CM-WEB-REPORT-FINAL-FLOUNDERING-AROUND.pdf

Chicago

Changing Markets Foundation. Floundering Around. 2021. https://changingmarkets.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/CM-WEB-REPORT-FINAL-FLOUNDERING-AROUND.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Changing Markets Foundation |title=Floundering Around |date=November 2021 |url=https://changingmarkets.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/CM-WEB-REPORT-FINAL-FLOUNDERING-AROUND.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{changingmarketsfoundation2021floundering, author = {{Changing Markets Foundation}}, title = {{Floundering Around}}, institution = {Changing Markets Foundation}, year = {2021}, month = nov, url = {https://changingmarkets.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/CM-WEB-REPORT-FINAL-FLOUNDERING-AROUND.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }