Sealaska company New England Seafood International (NESI) has been honored with the prestigious Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Retail Supplier of the Year award, which recognizes outstanding achievement and performance in sustainable fishing and seafood. It’s the third time the MSC has named NESI as the recipient.

The recognition is especially meaningful because nominations come from customers, said Ruth Hoban, Head of Sustainability at NESI.

“We are immensely proud to win this award, and we would like to thank our customers and the MSC for honoring us in this way, as well as our trusted suppliers who helped us achieve this award” Hoban said. ”The award recognizes our work to help our customers achieve their own sustainability goals and targets, especially delivering MSC-certified, wild-caught seafood status across all of our wild-caught species.”

Hoban said NESI’s dedication to driving improvement with its tuna fisheries and its commitment to guiding its own suppliers through the MSC process played a major part in the award.

“Our ambition towards certified UK species though our work with the Project UK initiative and our collaboration with customers on these big projects were also key,” she said. “We look forward to continuing our efforts to support the delivery of our customers’ goals in the future.”

Candidates to receive the award are nominated by UK retailers and chosen by the MSC. Seth McCurry, the MSC’s senior commercial manager, UK & Ireland, said winning this award three times out of the past four years is a huge testament to customers’ appreciation of NESI’s commitment to responsible practices.

“They received a very strong nomination, which highlighted their work to ensure a consistent supply of MSC species despite the sourcing challenges posed by COVID,” McCurry said. “The nomination also noted their dedication to working with their suppliers to grow their awareness and understanding of why sustainability is important to NESI and their customers.”

NESI is a major supplier of fresh, premium sustainable fish and seafood in the UK and one of the country’s largest importers of fresh tuna. Its customers are the UK’s leading supermarkets, including Waitrose, Marks & Spencer, and Sainsbury’s, as well as smaller retail outlets, restaurant chains, food-service markets and wholesale sectors nationwide. NESI also supplies its Fish Said Fred range of responsibly sourced fresh fish products to leading supermarkets, including Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Ocado, Tesco and Asda.

Sealaska bought NESI in October 2020 to strengthen its focus on consumer-centric, premium, chilled fish and seafood and build its capacity to provide globally integrated, world-class processing and food from the world’s best-managed fisheries. Sealaska is working to foster ocean health by growing demand for delicious, sustainably sourced ocean-based food.