SEAFOOD SAVERS AND MSC SUPPORT PRODUCT TRACEABILITY AND RESPONSIBLE SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
The sustainability of Indonesia's marine resources is highly dependent on the ability of our fishery products to compete in the international market. In addition to product quality, product traceability and the ability to reach markets are now determining factors in whether our products meet standards.
On July 29-30, 2020, WWF-Indonesia's Seafood Savers Program and the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) held an online training on the MSC Chain of Custody (CoC) Standard Standard Version 5.0, as part of the sustainable market development program. The training aims to help participants to be able to obtain MSC CoC certification including the implementation of CoC audits. The training material covers the basic principles of the CoC standard, assessment indicators, product traceability and supply chain management, as well as the MSC and CoC certification process.
There were 23 participants from various backgrounds, such as representatives from Seafood Savers partner producers, academics, buyers and a number of Provincial Marine and Fisheries Agency (DKP) staff in Indonesia.
In his speech, WWF-Indonesia's Head of Marine and Fisheries Program - Dr Imam Musthofa Zainudin, conveyed the need for business people, local governments and academics to understand CoC, so that each party that wants to go towards certification can help each other. From this training, WWF-Indonesia hopes that there will be more Assessors and Auditors for MSC certification available in Indonesia, to reduce the costs required for certification. WWF-Indonesia's Seafood Savers program is also the right partner to go through the stages of improvement in implementing sustainable fishing practices.
On the first day of the training event, the main speaker, Hirmen Syofyanto as Program Director of MSC Indonesia presented the material which included discussions related to MSC introduction, product traceability, ensuring product authentication and traceability aspects. The session ran very dynamically, this was shown by the presence of critical questions from participants regarding the topic of discussion presented by the speaker.
In the Online Training on CoC Chain of Custody Standards and Audit Preparation, participants not only received material presentations, but there were quiz activities in between material presentation sessions and when the material presentation was over. This is useful as a flashback to what participants have learned and understood, as well as a measure of participant understanding.
On the second day of training, the material provided began to become more complex and detailed. The material refers to the discussion of technical areas such as the certification and auditing process (inspection, review, traceability test, non-conformity finding, maintenance of certification, etc.), explanation of becoming an MSC Technical Consultant, and the 5 main principles of CoC. In line with the first day of training, the second day was also filled with quiz activities, and participants were divided into small groups to plan the implementation of a company audit, participants must discuss together the steps that must be prepared in carrying out the audit. This activity was accompanied by facilitators from the WWF-Indonesia and MSC teams so that participants get an initial overview of the activities they are working on.
Before closing, participants conveyed their impressions and messages about the implementation of the Online Training on Standards and Preparation for CoC Chain of Custody Audits that they had done during these 2 days.
"This is the first time for us from NTT to participate in this kind of activity, this training is indeed very good and maybe in the future if there are trainings like this we can be informed so that not only me who participates, maybe other technical offices or other provincial offices can participate in this kind of activity. This is also information for us at the Department of Marine Affairs and Fisheries to keep abreast of issues regarding traceability of fishery products in the future," said one of the participants, Anakletus Tese, S.Pi as the Head of Processing and Marketing of Marine and Fishery Products from the Department of Marine Affairs and Fisheries of NTT Province.