In 2025, the marketer Nueve Palmas achieved that 100% of its products have an environmental guarantee, a two-year advance of its original goal.
The general director, Rubén Guzmán, explained that the speed was achieved through audits, in particular, with SmartFish, a marketer and civil organization that works exclusively with fish products of sustainable origin, and catalog adjustments that guarantee the responsible origin of the products they sell.
“We made some adjustments to our menu and today all the products we offer have some type of certification or guarantee of sustainability,” he said.
Among the most important changes was the replacement of species without certification, although with an “extraordinary” fishing process, such as the curvina, with others with environmental guarantee. They also incorporated aquaculture products certified under BAP or MSC standards and species included in fisheries improvement projects (FIP), such as recently bluefin tuna.
Its catalog mainly offers fish fillet, tuna, sea bass, totoaba, huachinango and shrimp, products that come from aquaculture or fishing with traceability and international standards. Some of them are sold in frozen and vacuum-packed format, which allows quality to be preserved.
This achievement includes the Baja Sustainable brand, a line created by Nueve Palmas to guarantee product traceability —that is, to know where it comes from, how it was caught or cultivated and under what practices—, in addition to promoting local consumption and transparency in the supply chain.
During 2025, the brand was evaluated by the American company Seafood Ninja, which verified that 100% of Baja Sustainable products have some type of environmental guarantee. These endorsements include certifications such as MSC (Marine Stewardship Council), BAP (Best Aquaculture Practices) or participation in Fisheries Improvement Projects (FIP), as well as favorable evaluations in monitoring programs such as Seafood Watch.
Guzmán believes that, although there are advances, there are still areas of opportunity in sustainable fishing in the state. “One of the main challenges is the lack of information. We often don't know the origin of the fish we consume,” he said.
For this reason, the role of chefs and restaurateurs in promoting national species with certifications or in improvement projects stands out, and the importance of consumers adopting the habit of asking about the origin of what they eat.
“If we don't ask and we don't demand, it's always going to be the same,” he said. In this regard, he recommended consulting civil organizations such as Comeesca with its Fishing with the Future campaign, which offer catalogs of environmentally supported species and lists of restaurants committed to this practice.
As for the state landscape, Guzmán believes that Baja California Sur is “getting off to a good start” on the path to sustainability, although the proportion of responsible fishing compared to conventional fishing is still low. “Hopefully more people and restaurants will be interested, because if there's no public pressure, the change will be slower,” he said.
The businessman stressed that boosting the consumption of domestic products not only benefits the environment, but also the country's fishing communities. “We import about 900,000 kilos of fish fillet, mainly from Asia. Given the coastline we have, it's absurd to rely on Chinese tilapia. If we consume Mexican fish, the income stays in our communities,” he said.
Rubén Guzmán seeks that national products with traceability, quality and certifications guarantee their origin. “If a kilo of fish is sold in Mexico, let that income stay here, not in another country,” he concluded.
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