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Ethical caviar is the latest sustainable seafood item to go on sale
Waitrose this week became the first UK supermarket to sell sustainable caviar; further evidence of the sector's growing desire for ethically-sourced seafood which has exploded in recent months.
The new sustainable Prunier caviar, which will be available in 15 London Waitrose stores this Christmas, is produced by farmed sturgeon. But it isn't cheap. Prices range from £80 for 50g of traditional caviar to £800 for 250g of the most exclusive variety. It comes ten years after the food retailer removed caviar from its shelves amid concerns that the sturgeon population in the Caspian Sea was under threat and facing extinction.
"There will always be a foodie audience who want to enjoy the finer things in life, especially at Christmas - but it is only now that we have been able to find an ethical source for our caviar," said Jeremy Langley, a specialist fish buyer at Waitrose. "When it comes to choosing fish for our supermarkets, sustainability is always a key consideration for us."
The move is the latest effort by UK retailers to demonstrate their concern for sustainability when it comes to fisheries. Last month the Marine Stewardship Council announced the launch of the 1,000th product to carry the MSC's eco-label for sustainable seafood.
“It took seven years to get from the first product to 500, now - just nine months later - retailers have doubled that number,” said Rupert Howes, Chief Executive of the MSC. “No one predicted this rapid growth in demand for certified sustainable seafood.”
Furthermore, Icelandic authorities recently cut cod quotas and according to Greenpeace it was pressure from supermarkets, rather than governments that brought about the decision.
“This is extremely significant,” said Dr. Bryce Beukers-Stewart, the Marine Conservation Society's Fisheries Officer. “The supermarkets have really come a long way in the last couple of years.”
The popularity of cod in the UK means its numbers have been dwindling which has caused alarm among those looking to sustain the species. These concerns had already led most supermarkets to switch to Iceland's more plentiful stocks from other sources like the North or Baltic seas.
“The global seafood market has changed forever,” said Howes. “Sustainability has become a core market requirement. Major buyers and, increasingly, individual consumers are now demanding credible independent assurance that their seafood choices are not contributing to the environmental problems of overfishing.”
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