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Sea Pact Members Rally Together to Support Seafood Industry Challenges in the Wake of Covid-19 Crisis
March 24, 2020 - Sea Pact, a collaborative association of eleven leading American and Canadian seafood companies working to drive industry sustainability progress, have resolved to work together to face the unprecedented challenges of the Covid-19 global crisis. We recognize that this is a two-fold crisis- the health crisis that is the virus, and an economic crisis, with profound impacts of widespread closures and cancellations, disrupted supply chains, and escalating uncertainty about how long these turbulent times will continue and what shifts will become part of a new normal for us all. Every link in the food chain is being affected, and as seafood distribution companies in the middle of the supply chain, Sea Pactmember businesses have the position and responsibility to support seafood producers, customers, each other and our communities. How is Sea Pact Responding? While having to rapidly adjust business models and daily business decisions, we are supporting each other in the wake of this crisis. Sea Pact members are sharing where they are facing business challenges as well as their creative responses across multiple companies and geographies to share information and find innovative ways to adapt and build new best practices. “We have laid a strong foundation of trust from working closely together in noncrisis situations, and that ‘trust bank’ is allowing us to support each other’s ability to adapt our businesses and find and replicate creative solutions,” said Rob Johnson, Managing Director of Sea Pact. Sea Pact companies are responding with seafood discounts and donations to employees and partners, direct to consumer sales and home deliveries, pivots from food service to retail, developing seafood boxes, and promoting public heath safety. Flexibility is being extended to funded project partners for project deliverables and timelines. Our Message to the Industry Sea Pact is a respected thought leader in the sustainable seafood movement, and we need to rise to this challenge and amplify our desire to proactively drive positive change in the global seafood industry. By showing leadership and helping each other as colleagues we aim to inspire strong community sense and collaboration for stakeholders across the whole diverse seafood supply chain. It’s more important now than ever to come together as a unified seafood industry in all the ways that we can. Food supply is an essential service to maintain, but beyond the immediate challenges of this global health and economic crisis, the world needs a stable long-term supply of seafood protein that is good for people and good for the planet. Our call to action is for all members of the seafood industry to work together now and maintain our responsibility to provide a critical healthy sustainable protein supply. A global crisis requires collective action and a global mindset to support institutional learning that will endure after the crisis. Sea Pact wants to ensure that the seafood industry and the people and communities it serves collectively get through this successfully, to not only survive, but thrive when the world emerges from this crisis. About Sea Pact Euclid Fish Company, Fortune Fish & Gourmet, Inland Seafood, Intercity Packers, Ipswich Shellfish Group, JJ McDonnell, North Atlantic Inc., Santa Monica Seafood, Seacore Seafood, Seattle Fish Co., and Stavis Seafoods are the unified members of Sea Pact and share an active progressive approach to seafood sustainability commitments. Sea Pact receives sustainability counsel from non-profit organizations FishWise, Ocean Outcomes, and Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, and operational support from impact accelerator Multiplier. One of the things I find really interesting about Sea Pact, is that there are a fair number of collaborations between businesses that are all in a particular sector of the seafood industry- for example, fishery improvement platforms around crab or tuna, but there really aren’t many initiatives that bring together businesses that are involved primarily because of their commitment to sustainability, but that also cut across different markets. I believe it gives Sea Pact a different kind of frame and potential than the narrower bandwidth entities have. The Sea Pact tag line is United For A Sustainable Future. This is a group of respected, profitable, leading businesses in the middle of the supply chain– distributors & importers, that are uniquely positioned to affect change, both below and above them. They are literally and figuratively at the center of the industry. Many are long-running family businesses- rooted in the past and invested in the future- and their focus is on positive improvement across the whole seafood industry. Rob Johnson, Managing Director of Sea Pact  |
