The Incentives Towards Vested Interests in Seafood Traceability Expansion

presentationCan government regulations and company concerns to reduce their reputational and business risk lead to an increase in traceability programs? Are the drivers of traceability attributed to concerns over seafood sustainability, food provenance, quality and safety, fraud, and IUU fishing? These questions suggest there is a change in incentives and seafood companies will introduce traceability because the sustainability of fish stocks, illegal fishing and food safety are inherently important to them. I argue that given the right incentives seafood companies will have a vested interest. The risk of not having a vested interest is that government regulations that actually have any real benefit will only be in more advanced fisheries management regimes with good compliance, where the real benefits of those regulatory changes are usually the most negligible. Without a vested interest, seafood companies will always be exploring trade strategies where they can take advantage of import/export loopholes or restrictions and avoid getting involved in fisheries management and seafood provenance if they can reduce costs. The challenge is how do we change those incentives? When we see the economic benefits of good stewardship accruing to fishers, processors and distributors - it’s manifested to retailers and other downstream players in global supply chains through the default traceability programs that are created.