We won't catch them all. Mars leads the way.
As the first in the petcare industry, we have committed ourselves to using only sustainably-sourced fish by 2020. Set against a backdrop of dwindling fish stocks, and as one of the largest petcare producers in the world, we worked closely with the World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF) to develop our fish sustainability commitment. We aim to achieve the following milestones across our entire petcare portfolio:
- Only using fish from 100% sustainable wild catch and sustainable aquaculture sources
- Replacing all wild catch whole fish and fish fillets with sustainable fish by-products and sustainable aquaculture.
- Only using sustainable alternatives to marine fish ingredients.
An important milestone in this sustainability journey by Mars was the introduction of pet food in Europe certified by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) before the end of 2010. That was the year we began launching the MSC Certification on a selection of fish varieties in both the Sheba and Whiskas brand portfolios across Europe, therefore offering consumers a choice of more sustainable pet food products for the first time.
"Given the growing concerns about the use of endangered species of fish and fish caught in over-fished areas of the sea, we have already withdrawn the Bigeye Tuna, Bluefin Tuna and Swordfish from our entire European petfood portfolio. We ask our fish suppliers to respect sustainability concerns, e.g. strictly observe fishery management rules implemented by European regulators and only use legal fishing techniques", says Loic Moutault, General Manager of Mars Petcare Deutschland.
This has been a significant step on our sustainability journey. We are a business that is founded on five strong principles. As part of our "Principles in Action" approach, we continue to demonstrate that we actually do deliver on these principles - and this commitment is one more step in this direction.
