5.6.2011 10:47 AM

Supervalu Grocery Chains Will Stock Sustainable Seafood

In a new partnership with WWF, Superalu's family of grocery chains, including Acme and Shaw's, will stock Marine Stewardship Council-certified fish by 2015.

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Photo: Dušan Zidar/ Istock

By Dan Shapley

Shoppers at the nine grocery chains operated by Supervalu will soon find it easier to buy sustainably caught wild fish. A year-old partnership with World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has resulted in a pledge to stock its 20 best selling wild fish with Marine Stewardship Council-certified stocks by 2015. The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), started by WWF in the 1990s, sets standards for third-party certification of sustainable fisheries, an important aspect of protecting the world's oceans from overfishing.

By 2015, all of its Top 20 wild-caught sellers will be MSC-certified or from stocks nearing MSC certification, according to Supervalu, which owns hundreds of grocery stores in about 20 U.S. states and the District of Columbia under the banners of Acme, Albertons, Cub, Farm Fresh, Hornbacher's, Jewel-Osco, Shaw's/Star Market, Shop 'N Save and Shoppers.

Today, about 40% of its top-20 wild-caught fish are MSC-certified. Supervalu has also committed to supporting one particular sustainable fisheries project, the improvement of the Indonesian yellowfin tuna industry.

Supervalu and WWF will also continue working together to create and implement standards for sustainable farmed seafood, which increasingly dominates the U.S. fish and shellfish market, but which also has serious environmental drawbacks.

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