April 23, 2013 - Responsible procurement of seafood products: Metro provides a progress report
Montreal, April 23, 2013 - Three years after announcing the adoption of a Sustainable Fisheries Policy, Metro is outlining the progress that it has made over the past year with respect to its efforts aimed at offering its customers responsible seafood products. Along with its industry partners and its suppliers, and under the supervision of an oceanographer employed by Metro since January of 2011, the Corporation has greatly improved its performance when it comes to the responsible procurement of seafood products and is announcing that it will continue with its commitments along with establishing new initiatives.
Healthy Species:
- Implementation of new purchasing criteria for species classified in continuous improvement such as third party certifications, the application of recognized standards that demonstrate responsible management of suppliers activities, and product traceability;
- Drafting of a document presenting the main challenges involved with the procurement of tuna intended for private label canned products, and commitments from Metro that go along with it.
Sustainable Operating Methods:
- Meetings and dialogue with our stakeholders, including suppliers, members of the scientific community, NGO representatives, as well as with the government, for the purpose of cooperation and putting concerted actions from all those involved into place;
- Established a new purchasing criterion requiring that farmed shrimp be Best Aquaculture Practices BAP) certified;
- Took part in various meetings, notably le Forum québécois en sciences de la mer in Rimouski in November of 2012.
Product Traceability:
- Continuous updating of traceability information with our suppliers in order to provide information that allows customers to retrace the origin of products, such as provenance and type of fishing, on fresh, frozen and private label seafood products packaging.
Local Economy and Labor Law:
- Created a list of species to discover on metro.ca, for both their good farming and fishing practices and the proximity of the resource, such as arctic char, northern shrimp and lobster.
New initiative
Visit metro.ca/sustainablefisheries for all the details.
Metro inc.
With annual sales of over $11 billion and over 65,000 employees, METRO INC. is a leader in the food and pharmaceutical sectors in Québec and Ontario, where it operates a network of more than 600 food stores under several banners including Metro, Metro Plus, Super C and Food Basics, as well as over 250 drugstores under the Brunet, The Pharmacy and Drug Basics banners.
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Information
Marie-Claude Bacon
Senior Director, Corporate Affairs Department
METRO INC.
mbacon@metro.ca
514 643-1086
