Marketing and Promotion of Responsible Fisheries in Icelandic Waters
A seven member marketing board has been formed to organise the promotion of certification and corresponding logo for Responsible Fisheries in Icelandic waters.
The board was selected at a meeting of leaders of Icelandic seafood companies called by The Fisheries Association of Iceland (FAI) on Feb. 25th.
The task of the marketing board is to make preparations for promoting the certification logo in major markets for Icelandic seafood.
For the past twelve months the FAI has made a logo indicating Icelandic origin (Iceland Responsible Fisheries) available for use in the marketing of Icelandic seafood. Plans for the certification of Icelandic fisheries were also announced by the FAI in October 2008. Preparations for certification are now well advanced and according to plans the certification of the first fish stocks should be completed this year (2010). A new version of the logo signifying certification by an independent third party has thus also been prepared on behalf of the FAI.
Certification will be against the requirements of a specification developed by the FAI. The Icelandic Specification has been directly derived from the FAO (2005/2009) Guidelines For the Ecolabelling of Fish and Fishery Products from Marine Capture Fisheries.
The Icelandic Specification and Certification methodology will in turn be accredited by an IAF Accreditation Body (a member of the International Accreditation Forum) to the international standard for certification EN45011 / ISO 65.
Global Trust Certification Ltd, an independent and accredited certification body has been contracted as the Certification Management Body for the Icelandic Responsible Fisheries Certification Programme.
Global Trust’s role is to independently manage the Certification and Assessment Methodology that will be used to independently assess and certify the Icelandic Fisheries against the Icelandic Specification, to ensure that the Specification meets the specifics of the FAO Guides and to ensure the methodology can attain EN45011 /ISO 65 accreditation.
For further information, contact: Finnur Gardarsson, tel. (+354) 5910308 / (+354) 8962400
e-mail: finnur@fiskifelag.is.
