SEAFOOD SUSTAINABILITY

With over 90% of the world's fish stocks being either fully fished or overfished, seafood sustainability is a business-critical issue for Princes. We take an active role in calling on regional fishery management bodies to better manage the stocks we source from and have directly supported Fishery Improvement Projects in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans as well as sourcing from others around the world.

Our Approach To Sourcing

Founded in 1880 and initially trading solely in canned fish, few businesses have a heritage as rich in Princes in the sourcing of seafood. Even though we don’t own any boats, our commitment to sourcing seafood responsibly is a key part of our sustainability programme.

Where possible, we aim to source from Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified fisheries or those that are actively involved in Fishery Improvement Projects (FIPs) with the aim of achieving MSC certification. Every fish that goes into a Princes can is traceable back to the boat that caught it.

Tuna

In 2021, 100% of Princes’ branded tuna was Responsibly Sourced for the first time. In 2022, we completed the conversion of all Princes brand tuna sold in the Netherlands to be MSC certified. With tuna FIPs maturing and in many cases gaining MSC certification, in the UK, we set out our targets to convert Princes brand tuna to MSC over a three year timescale with the following targets:

25% MSC by the end of 2023

50% MSC by the end of 2024

100% MSC by the end of 2025

In 2022 we also reaffirmed our direct involvement in improving tuna sustainability in the Indian Ocean – our most important tuna sourcing region – through a further year’s extension of the Sustainable Indian Ocean Tuna Initiative (SIOTI) FIP. We also continued to support the Senegal pole & line tuna FIP in the Atlantic Ocean.