Profiles

Interview with John Arnold of Fairtrade Foundation at the 2009 Seafood Summit

John Arnold is head of new product and standards development at the Fairtrade Foundation, based in London. John spoke with Seafood Choices’ Melanie Siggs at the 2009 Seafood Summit in San Diego, CA about new opportunities for fair trade of marine products.

Melanie (MS): Hi John. I understand that Fairtrade have come to a decision now, that it’s a good time to start researching the opportunities for fair trade in marine products. How did you arrive at that decision?

John (JA): Yes and it’s one that we’ve been thinking [about] for some time now and we feel that it’s the opportune time to build on the fantastic work that different organizations have been looking at from the environmental perspective and clearly there are issues as far as the social and economic perspective that the artisanal producers and the small-holder producers as well as those who work in the larger scale operations in both sectors.

MS: So I understand that MRAG have done some quite extensive research on your behalf looking at the opportunities in both wild-caught and farmed products. Do you want to tell us a little bit about the outcomes of some of that?

JA: Yea sure. MRAG worked as a consultant for us last year, in the last quarter of last year, and some of the conclusions that they came forward with was that there’s a definite need for improved benefits to go back through to the small-scale producers for both the artisanal fisheries and also in the aquaculture perspective, but also interestingly, the perspective on the illegal catches, and the ways that the industry could become better organized and negotiate with governments to enable the benefits of their activities to go back to the communities in which they live, and this is a real focus for Fairtrade and we feel that there is some really good work that we could build on and take it forward from there.

MS: So what happens next?

JA: Next, is a phase II that we’re looking towards starting next quarter, that’s this year, and we’re going to be looking at implementing some assessment projects with different folks in different locations throughout the world, which is very exciting.

MS: So are you looking for partners to do this with, or do you expect to move forward on your own capacity?

JA: It’s very definite. We’ve gone through a strategy review as far as the Fairtrade labeling organization – our umbrella organization – is concerned, and we’re looking to collaborate and to partner with reputable organizations who have done a lot of good work in the past and looking forward to the future, more sustainable production both in fisheries and the aquaculture side. So this conference has been a real opportunity for that, for people to meet and to discuss. We’ve had some very excellent discussions so far.

Interview took place February 2009
Posted December 2009

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