Southeastern Grocers’ Seafood to Get Even More Sustainable
In keeping with its commitment to providing customers with responsibly sourced seafood, Southeastern Grocers LLC, parent company of Bi-Lo, Harveys and Winn-Dixie stores, has pledged to have all farm-raised seafood, fresh and frozen, to be four-star Best Aquaculture Practice (BAP) Certified by 2018.
Scott Morris, EVP of merchandising for Jacksonville, Fla.-based Southeastern Grocers said that the grocer was aware of “how important it is to have fish for now and fish for the future. To ensure this, we must focus on sustainable ways of providing customers with quality product with minimal environmental impact.”
Southeastern Grocers already works with such leading seafood sustainability organizations as the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA), to ensure that its farm-raised seafood suppliers adhere to the BAP program; the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP), its main sustainable seafood collaborator; the Marine Stewardship Council/National Marine Fishing Service, to certify and manage the grocer’s sustainable practices; and World Wildlife Fund, to determine sustainable fisheries.
The company also selects reputable suppliers that employ best practices in animal welfare, abiding by labor regulations and safety laws for both farm-raised and wild-caught seafood. The BAP program features a one- to four-star rating of the quality and sustainability of the fish and its environment. To receive a four-star rating, an aquafarm must promote quality habitat, social well-being, protected hatcheries and balanced nutrition. Southeastern Grocers currently works with eight BAP four-star suppliers, but by 2018, all farm-raised seafood sold in Winn-Dixie, Bi-Lo and Harvey stores will be BAP four-star certified, providing our customers superior product.
In the case of wild-caught seafood, Southeastern Grocers fully discloses the country of origin, method of catch, and source location of each item.
Additionally, the grocer is the first, and so far only, American retail member of the International Pole and Line Foundation, an organization committed to using only one-by-one catching methods, the most sustainable means to harvest tuna. Southeastern Grocers is working supply partners to ensure that its own-brand tuna will be responsibly sourced and dolphin-safe by 2017.
The second-largest supermarket chain in the Southeast based on store count, Southeastern Grocers employs nearly 60,000 associates in about 750 grocery stores, 140 liquor stores and 500 in-store pharmacies throughout Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina.