A group of 26 fishing companies has joined an initiative of the Collective Impact Initiative for Mexican Fisheries and Aquaculture (ICPMX) collaboration platform on sustainability.
The “Marketing Commitment for the Responsible Purchase of Fish and Seafood” was announced as part of the fourth edition of the Latin American Summit on Fisheries and Aquaculture Sustainability, organized by the civil organization Comeesca, made up of fishing actors from various sectors.
The undersigned organizations committed themselves to implementing sustainable practices; to promote changes between practices that reduce the entry of illegal fishing products; to add more actors to the working groups; and to building a route for the accompaniment of expert peers in 2024.
This guide will be made public for companies that wish to join and represents a challenge that seeks to involve more players in the sector.
In an interview with Causa Natura Media, Mauricio Orellana, representative of Comeesca in the announcement and one of the 26 signatory companies, spoke about the opportunities of this initiative and the participation of Comeesca's partner companies through dialogue with the Collective Impact platform.
— How did this initiative come about and what do these guidelines that you have just announced intend?
Look, in reality, the initiative is one that has been pushing and promoting Collective Impact. And when it comes to thinking about who can join in saying what they do, how they do it and everything, since Comeesca is a Collective Impact partner, we participate not as Comeesca, but individually each of the companies within Comeesca. But within Collective Impact on market groups and the different segments of dissemination, governance and so on, that they have.
There has always been this dialogue and this communication with them (ICPMX) and us to try to help us. In the end, I think it's a collaboration between different actors from different parts, because Collective Impact has a lot of non-governmental organizations, the vast majority of them I think are NGOs. Comeesca has a large majority of partners who are producers, marketers, who somehow practice and eat this every day.
So, having this dialogue with Collective Impact, it was decided that in order to try to legitimate what is being done within companies and that the people who are in Comeesca and who are in this realm of sustainability and trying to preach sustainability, that why didn't a document or initiative be signed that would make the responsibility of companies to buy legal products transparent.
— What do the document and its commitments entail?
The document in its analysis and development, in which I did not participate so openly but I did read it in detail, basically marks many of the things that any of our companies do on a daily basis.
An arrival notice or a harvest notice, an invoice that accompanies and is related to a CFDI, hence a sales invoice, purchase invoice, etc., which adds robustness to the structure. First of all, we can't ignore taxation, if I don't buy products that don't have a notice of arrival, harvest or change of inventory on a product on sale, for example, I can get into trouble.
To get the point right, I think this will help us in companies to be better and that is a collaboration where I should probably thank Luis (Bourillón), Pablo (Konietzko) and Collective Impact, in general, because they are helping us to improve.
And in a very important way, it is also to invite Comeesca's partners, first of all, to adhere, secondly, to be transparent in some way, which is a word that you cannot use so lightly; to be transparent in your processes, because we sign it in a document, and finally to demonstrate the legal origin of the product.
— What does transparency entail?
What's going on. If we do it right, we don't have to hide anything, but why do I say that transparency doesn't become an issue lightly.
So well, for example, that Ned (Ned Daly from Seafood Source) presented it just now, what he said is very important, transparency is something you don't say lightly, that I don't want anyone to know who my suppliers are, or at what prices I buy, or the origin of the resources. I report it to the SAT because I pay my taxes, but everything has a chain that today, with the technology that exists, is all completely linked from the harvest notice, the purchase invoice, the sales invoice, such, such and such, that is, it is a very long chain, it is no longer like before that foolish invoices were issued.
— Let's say that transparency in terms of traceability, of legal origin, not necessarily that they are going to disclose sensitive commercial data, right?
That's right, but that's where sometimes people get lost or get very defensive, because asking Comeesca's partners, in particular, because I had part of the process within the team we were participating in, within Comeesca at the request of Collective Impact, was to explain to them, hey no, I'm not asking you for sensitive information, it's just having the traceability of the documents that accompany the origin of this.
In short, it's a kind of audit, if you want environmental or good practices, I don't think it's going to achieve that kind of robustness, but if there's the same thing that happened in the United States and what happened in Japan, Wakao Hanaoka (representative of Seafood Legacy) there is a certain resistance to companies, but in the end I think it's an opportunity for us to become better and to be able, not so much to judge those who sell or buy legal products, but to separate ourselves from those who don't... and that will help us to show who they are That they are not doing correctly.
— And how many members are in Comeesca? Do those who are missing still have a chance to do it?
The members who are currently in force and up to date within Comeesca were actually invited. I'm missing the exact data, but we are around 40 and something.
You have to update the 2024 list with the payment of the dues, that is, to see people who may decide to succeed, I would give you a more precise figure, but of the companies that signed there were 26 and we were missing about eight, because the law did not allow it, because maybe I was out, or because for some time it didn't match, now there are two or three here at the meetings that say “I'm going to sign it, but I didn't sign it because I was in China, one, the other was traveling”, etc.
In other words, there are several more who are going to do it and there are others that bring a delay in the decision and in the issues. So, those who haven't done it still have a chance to do it, let's say.
— And I understand that somehow it's free will for anyone who wants to join, or it's a bit 'if you want to be a member, you have to'.
Look, we haven't talked about that part and it's a really good question you're asking. The issue is not what you have already done but the consequences of not having done it.
So, I think, Comeesca is an organization that is characterized by not seeking conflict, especially in the best direction of Citlali Gómez, it has always tried to permeate all of us that, that we try to carry things as she says in good vibes. So, very conciliatory, with a sense of adding rather than subtracting.
I think the intention will be to find out how these partners can join together to add value to this initiative. But like this initiative, there are many other responsibilities in which we participate as well.
In Collective Impact, I add, he is a great partner for Comeesca and it is a part where many times we members know he is, but we should give a little more seriousness to what this document will entail and the way in which the relationship will work on a daily basis. In other words, what are you going to demand from me, how, how far, where is confidentiality, data priority, and so on.
— What can those who have already signed wear?
It is a document that, in a very flexible and voluntary way, invites you to participate so that things work properly, but if there is a very important paragraph in the dialogue of what was signed, where it says that when the time comes you would be willing to make transparent, as you say, the chain of custody, traceability, above all.
— Well, it's an unprecedented event in Mexico, would you say?
Well, let's hope so, take a look, because what it's all about is increasing the volume of consumption of sustainable, sustainable products. And the goal for all of us is just that, to seek more people to join. In fact, I think, it's something completely (mine)... that it's going to be a non-competitive barrier for people, I insist, who aren't interested in that kind of practice or who, in short, have different ideas, which are also respectable, to say, hey, I'm going to sign those things. So, they're going to be left out, aren't they? Alone.
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