Aiming for 100% Sustainable Procurement

Have you heard of marine product eco-labels? A marine product eco-label is a mechanism in which environmentally-friendly and properly-managed sustainable fisheries and aquaculture which give consideration to marine resources and ecosystems are certified. A label verifying that is then displayed on certified-marine products. You can use this label as a guideline when shopping to be able to select and purchase sustainable marine products. There are marine product eco-label certification management organizations in places all over the world. There are also various types of labels. However, the MSC, ASC and MEL certification standards are citied as being leading internationally-recognized marine product eco-labels.

The Seven & i Group has made the GREEN CHALLENGE 2050 environmental declaration comprised of four themes we are aiming to achieve by 2050. One of these themes is sustainable procurement. We have declared that 100% of the raw food ingredients we use in our original products, including Seven Premium, will be those which guarantee sustainability by 2050. We heard in our interview that we have begun an initiative to introduce products affixed with marine product eco-labels to Seven Premium products as one concrete measure toward achieving this target. We started selling MSC-certified salted cod roe with red pepper and regular cod roe as Seven Premium products in October 2018. Since then, we have expanded our product assortment by introducing ASC-certified fried shrimp as a product in the same series. However, we heard that we were not able to affix marine product eco-labels to packages and sell products in the categories of sashimi and sliced fish processed in our stores. Mr. Mabuchi, the person in charge of Seven Premium Development who promoted this initiative, told us the reason for that is as follows.

“In addition to the producer who catches or farms the marine products, the business operator who processes and distributes them also needs to acquire CoC certification to display a marine product eco-label on the products we sell. When purchasing and selling certified products already packaged like salted cod roe with red pepper and fried shrimp, we could display labels and provide the products in our stores without acquiring certification. However, when we processed certified marine products into sashimi and sliced fish and sold them in the stores in our group, we could not display the label without also acquiring CoC certification.”
It was essential for companies in the Seven & i Group to acquire CoC certification to achieve the target of 100% sustainable procurement we have stated in GREEN CHALLENGE 2050. With that in mind, Mr. Mabuchi set out to acquire CoC certification in cooperation with Ito-Yokado, York-Benimaru, York Foods and York Mart which operate superstore businesses within our group.

Process up to ASC-certified Salmon Being
Available in Our Stores

CoC certification is a system which certifies that marine product eco-label-certified products have been properly managed to prevent mixing with other non-certified marine products in all manufacturing, processing and distribution processes after being caught.

CoC certification needs to be acquired for each organization offers marine product eco-label certification. Mr. Mabuchi and his team aimed to acquire CoC certification under MSC and ASC certification in this initiative. It seems the thinking behind that was the desire to “sell Seven Premium raw Atlantic salmon which we had long handled as an ASC-certified product.”“In the fresh fish category, Tuna and salmon account for a large percentage of our sales in the stores of our group. In particular, Seven Premium’s raw Atlantic salmon is an iconic product widely handled by the companies in our group. The company in Norway which serves as our salmon producer had already acquired ASC certification. Therefore, if we acquired CoC certification as the processor and seller of that salmon, we would be able to make it available in our stores with certification labels affixed to the products. We worked to acquire the certification to realize that goal.”

Seven & i Holdings started a project to acquire CoC certification around October 2021. We worked on this initiative in cooperation with Ito-Yokado, York-Benimaru, York Foods and York Mart. We were successfully able to acquire certification in June 2022 the following year. Mr. Mabuchi told us the most difficult part in the process leading up to the acquisition of this certification was “establishing operational rules which do not place a burden on those who actually process the marine products in our stores.” “We must satisfy detailed operating conditions to pass the CoC certification review process. On the other hand, each of our companies has its own rules about the management and processing of fresh fish. Therefore, we needed to create operational rules compatible with CoC certification in a form as close as possible to the actual situation in our stores.” Mr. Mabuchi developed the operational rules which seemed to be the best through repeated discussions with those in charge of fresh fish and trial and error. We successfully acquired CoC certification through training in our stores. We could then start selling ASC-certified raw Atlantic salmon on October 28, 2022 as was our goal.

“The feature of this salmon is that we fly it in from Norway where it is produced while still raw. We want our customers to enjoy the freshness that comes from never being frozen and the taste of the high-quality fat (Mr. Mabuchi).” ASC-certified Seven Premium Fresh Raw Atlantic Salmon is sold in 461 supermarkets affiliated with the Seven & i Group (as of the end of October 2022).

Connecting Limited Marine Resources to the Future

Seven & i Holdings has now acquired MSC and ASC CoC certification. That means we are able to display certification labels on the sliced fish and sashimi we process in the supermarkets in our group. However, when looking back on this initiative, it appears Mr. Mabuchi has realized should not be the real goal “
“Currently, the catch of various marine products in Japan is visibly decreasing. If marine resources continue to be depleted in this way, we will not be able to sell fish. The livelihoods of producers will also cease to exist. Originally, our goal with this initiative was to provide exclusive product by displaying certification labels on them. However, I began to see that the real goal was to protect the future of the fisheries industry beyond that.”
Mr. Mabuchi also mentioned that We also want to continue focusing our efforts in the future on expanding the range of products certified with marine product eco-labels to protect the sea environment and to pass on marine resources to later generations under our own steam.

Mr. Mabuchi told us the following about the significance of the Seven & i Group handling sustainable marine products in our stores.
“The existence of marine product eco-labels is not yet recognized in the world. There are also only a few people who feel a sense of crisis about the depletion of marine resources. That is why we want to create opportunities for our customers to learn about their existence and to change their behavior by handling sustainable marine products in the stores which are close to the lives of many people.”
We will move one step at a time toward a better future by steadily increasing the number of marine product eco-label-certified products we sell. Seven & i Holdings will continue to make every effort to engage in sustainable procurement in the future.