LOOKING FOR ECO-FRIENDLY SEAFOOD? HERE'S HOW!
Denpasar, 21 November 2022- WWF Indonesia Foundation through the Seafood Savers Program in collaboration with IAMBEU Mina Utama introduced environmentally friendly seafood through the promotion "Spend 100 thousand, Free 1 Fish Steak" at IAMBEU retail, Jalan Bypass Ngurah Rai, Bali. This promotion was carried out during the period of November 18 - 27, 2022 taking the moment of National Fish Day, and the Gemarikan campaign echoed by the Directorate General of Strengthening the Competitiveness of Marine and Fishery Products of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (KKP).
A consumer survey conducted by the Marine Stewardship Council in 2021 stated that 71% of global seafood consumers want sustainable and environmentally friendly fishery products. This is evidence that consumer awareness of overfishing and its impact on marine ecosystems has been built. However, seafood consumers in Indonesia still find it difficult to get environmentally friendly seafood products, because not all products have information related to their sources. Through a campaign with the theme "Not an Ordinary Fish Market", Seafood Savers introduces consumers to environmentally friendly seafood criteria using the Seafood Advisor Consumer Guide application (https://linktr.ee/SeafoodSavers). Consumers are encouraged to choose seafood based on color categories: green is the best choice, yellow means consider, and red means avoid. Consumers are also expected to choose seafood that has a clear source, and has carried out practices to improve capture and aquaculture fisheries, this can be done by asking directly to the seller. "Through the Seafood Savers program, we want to show retailers that Indonesian consumers are also able to buy environmentally friendly products, retailers also need to guarantee the products they sell are environmentally friendly through product traceability transparency. Currently, consumers do not know where they can buy seafood that is guaranteed to be environmentally friendly apart from product ecolabels," explained Dr. Imam Musthofa, Director of Marine and Fisheries Program, WWF Indonesia Foundation. IAMBEU Mina Utama is one example of a fish processing and retail unit that sells some of the products from its responsible aquaculture and capture fisheries improvement program in the domestic market. "We want consumers in Indonesia to also experience seafood products that are high quality and guaranteed to be environmentally friendly. Therefore, as a goodwill gesture, since 2017, IAMBEU joined Seafood Savers to improve responsible fisheries practices towards Aquaculture Stewardship Council and Marine Stewardship Council fisheries ecolabel certification. We started to improve our fisheries from barramundi (white snapper) and grouper for aquaculture, and red snapper for capture fisheries. Hopefully, this can be a guarantee for consumers that the products we sell are truly environmentally friendly," said I Gusti Arya Eman Himawan, as President Director of PT IAMBEU Mina Utama. Consumers play an important role in the availability of environmentally friendly seafood products. With an increase in transactions on environmentally friendly seafood, consumers can urge the seafood supply chain (retail, processing units, producers to small scale) to provide more environmentally friendly products. Let's start from ourselves, to be a wise consumer for a sustainable ocean.