Fish Nation Foundation presents in Vigo the first Sustainability Guide for the seafood processing industry

• Articulated in eleven chapters, the publication is a practical tool for integrating sustainability into marine-industry strategies and operations.
• It offers a wide range of indicators and monitoring instruments that facilitate the measurement of results and decision-making, and provides an in-depth analysis of national and international regulatory frameworks.
• Incorporates a selection of success stories from Conxemar member companies, showing real examples of best practices

The Fish Nation Foundation presented this morning, at the Museum of the Sea of Galicia (Vigo, Spain), the Guide to Sustainability in the Seafood Processing Industry, a publication that was created with the aim of accompanying companies in the sector in their process of adaptation to the new regulatory frameworks on corporate sustainability, which make up the transition to a sustainable blue economy.

The event was attended by the president of the Fish Nation Foundation, Eloy García, the sustainability director of Conxemar, Luis García, and the business director of Ambical, Andrés Pilas, a company that has collaborated technically in the preparation of the Guide.

Eloy García stressed the importance of a text that ‘places us at the forefront of change and commits us to the future of the sea, the industry and society’. In this sense, conceived as an eminently practical tool, the Guide is the first major project of the Fish Nation Foundation since its creation in 2024.

Aimed at all organisations operating in the seafood processing industry, regardless of their size or degree of maturity in terms of sustainability, it aims to facilitate their alignment with ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) principles through a systematic, flexible approach adapted to the realities of the sector.

To this end, the publication is divided into eleven chapters that address the key aspects of sustainable management. After an initial diagnosis of the sector and its challenges, including climate change, overfishing, loss of biodiversity and social and labour inequalities, the document focuses on the tools that enable companies to assess their performance, identify their impacts, risks and opportunities, and define strategies for continuous improvement.

The content
Among the sections covered is the dual materiality analysis, a methodology that makes it possible to determine which issues are priorities, both from the point of view of the company’s impact on its environment and the influence of external factors on its operations and future sustainability. This perspective is key to coherently integrating sustainability into corporate strategy.

The Guide also provides a comprehensive set of indicators and monitoring tools to facilitate performance measurement and evidence-based decision making. These indicators cover environmental (emissions, energy consumption, waste, water footprint), social (working conditions, equality, health and safety) and governance (transparency, business ethics, stakeholder engagement) aspects.

The document also addresses communication and transparency, two increasingly relevant elements in the current regulatory and market context. Within this framework, it guides companies on how to structure their sustainability reports in accordance with the new European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), including guidelines for the external verification of the information published.

In addition, national and international regulatory frameworks are analysed in depth, from European regulations on taxonomy and sustainable finance, to the FAO guidelines, the UN SDGs, the GRI standard and other sectoral and global references.

And as an added value, the Guide includes a selection of success stories of companies in the sector that show real examples of good practices implemented in different areas: improving energy efficiency, reducing single-use plastics, developing sustainable packaging, promoting equality in the workplace, continuous training programmes and collaboration with responsible local suppliers.

‘To be useful, practical and adaptable’.
During the event, Eloy García stressed that ‘this guide is born with a clear vocation: to be useful, practical and adaptable. It is not a theoretical framework, but an operational tool that will allow the sector to respond to the challenges that are already a reality, and to do so with rigour, coherence and ambition’.

For his part, Luis García stressed that ‘sustainability is not only a regulatory requirement, but also a strategic opportunity to gain competitiveness, attract investment, retain talent and improve the perception of the sector in the eyes of consumers and society’.

The event concluded with a meeting space for representatives of companies, administrations, technology centres and entities of the marine-industry ecosystem to exchange views on the next steps to be taken in the deployment of this roadmap.