The GDST is working to enhance the traceability of farmed fish, such as these salmon, and wild-caught fish at all stages in their journey to the consumer.

Global experts add strength to push for enhanced seafood traceability

Seafrigo, DNV, and OpsSmart Global partner with GDST

Editorial team
Published

The Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability (GDST) today announced that Seafrigo, DNV, and OpsSmart Global have joined its expanding partnership network, committing to a global standard for digital seafood traceability.

The announcement comes ahead of the GDST’s annual plenary session at Seafood Expo Global (SEG) in Barcelona next week.

Seafrigo is a cold-chain logistics heavyweight with 28 offices on five continents. Oslo-headquartered DNV is an independent expert in assurance and risk management, and its name is synonymous with rigorous testing, certification and technical advisory service of equipment and the performance of business’s organisations, products, people, facilities, and supply chains.

What is the GDST?

The GDST is a non-profit foundation dedicated to creating and sharing a common language for traceability in the seafood supply chain, using data that is both reliable and affordable.

It has brought together industry and civil stakeholders to develop its global Standard, which businesses can adopt and implement as the common language for digital, interoperable traceability.

Becoming a GDST partner means making a public commitment for a common standard for interoperable digital traceability and developing capability within operations in alignment with the GDST standard.

OpsSmart software traces food of all types across the entire supply chain from the farm to the fork. The information that OpsSmart traces includes such properties as parent stock, feed, vaccinations, pesticides, health inspections, veterinarian reports, HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) processes and all other relevant information from the farm through further processing to the retail store.

Leveraging expertise

With a community now exceeding 50 partners and representing 15 countries, the GDST describes itself as the underlying thread that links together every sector working towards seafood traceability - from fishermen, processors and retailers to tech specialists, regulators and NGOs. It says Seafrigo, DNV and OpsSmart Global will help to inform the GDST’s strategic direction through their specialisms in quality assurance and risk management, seafood logistics and cold chain solutions and supply chain data.

“We are thrilled to welcome our new GDST partners and leverage their expertise to enhance the GDST Foundation’s vision for global, interoperable traceability in seafood,” said Greg Brown, executive director of the GDST. “Their contributions will be instrumental in shaping the future of our global Standard and driving positive change throughout the seafood industry.”

In addition to its new commitment as a founder partner of the GDST Foundation, Seafrigo will also join the GDST supervisory board as its 13th member to help oversee and guide the GDST’s strategic direction. The boatd is chaired by Adam Brennan, chief sustainability officer for Thai Union, and its members include Sainsbury's head of fisheries and aquaculture Dave Parker.

Adopting the Standard

Alfred Whitman, Seafrigo’s global head of business development for contract logistics, said: “We’ll work to promote and reinforce the GDST standards by leveraging our superior seafood logistics capabilities. With a footprint now spanning 28 countries and territories, our company looks forward to adopting the GDST Standard, and working with all stakeholders to boost digital seafood traceability, from harvest to fork”.

Lisa de Jager, global aquaculture sales and marketing director at DNV, said the new partnership leverages a harmonised approach to traceability.

“There will be a lot of traceability solutions out there. It’s important that these solutions are able to speak to each other. If we don’t base our traceability solution on an open platform and ensure data interoperability, we will never manage to get this harmonised,” she said.

It’s important that traceability solutions are able to speak to each other or we'll never get this harmonised

Lisa de Jager, DNV

OpsSmart brings years of expertise in interoperability and supply chain mapping. Co-founder Sharmeen Khan said OpsSmart illuminated the “black hole of insight” that typically exists in supply chain management. “This increased visibility and transparency can lead to various benefits, including improved efficiency, reduced errors, enhanced trust, and better decision-making across the supply chain ecosystem.”

The GDST will host its annual plenary session on Thursday, April 25 at the SEG’s Fira Barcelona venue. The plenary welcomes partners and advisors to collectively advance the global Standard, share expertise, and discuss insights gathered from GDST’s regional working sessions held in Boston, Cape Town, and Singapore.

Plenary invitation

The GDST invites partners and advisors of the Standard to participate in the upcoming Plenary Session by completing the registration form on its new website. It will be held from 10am-12pm (plus lunch), April 25, room CC1.1 at Fira Barcelona.

During the Expo, the GDST will also moderate a panel discussion called: “Traceability - it is not just Sustainability - a Framework Approach”. Joining the discussion are DNV’s De Jager, Christine Xu from the Aquatic Life Institute, Marcelo Hidalgo from the Fishing Industry Association of Papua and New Guinea, and Libby Woodhatch from sustainable fisheries organisation MarinTrust. Together, the session aims to explore the broad possibilities of information sharing through the GDST Standard.

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