Italian manufacturer Calabraittica obtains Friend of the Sea certification for anchovy fillets
10 April 2018_European anchovy by Italian seafood company Calabraittica has been found compliant with Friend of the Sea’s sustainability requirements. Fished in the Mediterranean Sea (FAO Area 37), the anchovies are processed and packed for the Fish Different product line in Anoia, a little town near Reggio Calabria, in the South of Italy.The species is fished by Friend of the Sea’s approved artisanal purse seine vessels with no impact on the seabed.
All fish for FISH DIFFERENT line is catch with the “lampara“, a fishing technique typical of Southern Italy that employs floating purse nets on small boats equipped with lamps. The lampara guarantees a high quality catch, because fishes do not undergo mechanical stress, and do not need too much handing. This technique is highly selective either, since sea beds stay intact fully respecting marine ecosystems.
According to the FAO General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) 2015 assessment, discards generated by this fishing gear are below 1%. There are no records of protected species affected by this fishery. In addition, the company meets Friend of the Sea’s requirements of social accountability being all workers employed according to national and ILO standards.
Calabraittica is a family owned company founded by the Alvaros at the end of the Second War World. It now distributes its products in Italy, Austria, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Australia and Brazil. In 2017 they launched the Fish Different product line that combines the principles of environmental sustainability as stated by Friend of the Sea’s certification, with those of the organic food industry as well as the protection of food products at risk of extinction, according to Slow Food Presidia project.
Alvaro brothers Felice and Mimmo, who lead the company, comment: “We have chosen FOS driven by a strong ethical need: we strongly believe that all human activities must be in balance with the ecosystem. Fishing with the Lampara, (the fishing lamp), the fish handwork and the rigid refrain from using chemical preservatives it’s our way of contributing to this balance. We wanted a scheme that would help us to state this, and it came naturally to us to call FOS”.
Marco Ciardullo, Fish Different Product and Sales Manager, says: “Ethics and sustainability are essential to safeguard our planet. FOS is the choice that satisfies the urgent calls for sustainability and a distinctive topic in the nowadays corporate communication”.
“The certification of Calabraittica products confirms the growing importance of seafood sustainability in the Mediterranean area,” explains Paolo Bray, Director of Friend of the Sea “We are confident that in turn this will stimulate the fishing industry to manage marine resources in a sustainable way”.
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