ASC Builds Momentum in Americas with Appointment of Peter Redmond

The Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) today announced that Peter Redmond has been appointed Vice President of Market Development for their operations in North America.

Peter is a seafood industry veteran who has built a strong network amongst seafood buyers and suppliers over the course of a distinguished career in sustainability and procurement, including 17-years at Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the world, where he was responsible for implementing their seafood sustainability commitments. Peter will officially join the team on 22 May and is the first in this role for the ASC. He will lead commercial engagements and outreach for the programme in the United States and Canada.

“We are excited to welcome Peter to our growing Americas team in this new position as Vice President of Market Development,” said Chris Ninnes, CEO of ASC.  “He will lead our retail and supply chain focused work, linking certified supply to a growing demand for ASC products in the market. With his appointment to the America’s team Peter joins a growing number of ASC staff in the region including Contessa Kellogg-Winters who heads up ASC’s global communications team, Colin Brannen, Standards Technical Coordinator, whose main focus is on the development of new standards and Laurent Viguie, who leads our commercial work in Brazil.”

The ASC has enjoyed rapid uptake around the globe, as retailers and farmers have embraced the programme, particularly in Europe, with great enthusiasm. With a growing number of staff now in place in North and South America, the ASC is poised to expand upon that success in the Americas. The region is not only the base of expanding fish farming operations for salmon, shrimp, tilapia, bivalves and many other fin fish, it also contains both the United States-the single most important  market outside of China for farmed fish-and Brazil, which is one the fastest growing market for farmed fish in the world.

“The time is right for us to provide more direct support for many of our certified farms that are supplying into these important markets and respond directly to the encouragement that many of them have given us to take this step.”

Esther Luiten, Commercial Director of the ASC said, “With the expanded ASC staff in the Americas, we will be able to service companies already working with our programme even better and expand interest amongst others. This is key to delivering on our mission to bring meaningful positive change for both the environment and the people who depend on aquaculture for their livelihoods. Our unique performance-based standards, together with the transparency of our programme and the easy to recognize ASC-logo on consumer facing products, are fundamental to our effort to promote and reward those producers who operate responsibly.”   

“I am thrilled to be working back in the seafood sector with ASC,” said Peter.  “As I anticipate engaging with the retail and food service sector, I am so excited at the opportunities that ASC can bring to the market place. I look forward to seeing a lot of old friends in the coming months, along with making a lot of new ones.”

Peter’s distinguished career spans more than two decades and notably began at Wal-Mart where he held a variety of critical roles and capacities including store operations, and senior buyer before rising to become Vice President and Divisional Manager for Deli and Seafood. While in this capacity, Peter was charged with developing the company’s seafood strategy for environmental sustainability. The resulting programme and work are well known throughout the seafood industry and NGO groups.

Upon leaving Wal-Mart, Peter formed Epiphany Group LLC, a company that focuses on consulting to the deli and seafood industry on environmental and business solutions. Through Epiphany, Peter worked with some of the largest retailers in the world, both nationally and internationally, along with a plethora of manufacturers and NGOs.

Previously, Peter served as Vice President of Global Market Development for the Global Aquaculture Alliance. He left GAA to re-join the retail industry when he took a role as Vice President of Bakery, Deli, Commercial Bread and Food Service with South Eastern Grocers (SEG). At SEG, Peter was responsible for all purchasing and procurement along with in store execution of merchandising and marketing plan for these areas. SEG is based in the south eastern US and encompasses retailers Winn-Dixie, Harveys, Fresco Y Mas, and BILO among other stores.

The expansion of the ASC’s presence in the Americas is just one in a series of exciting developments for the ASC. In only seven years, the ASC has become recognised as a trusted scheme and has received high profile commitments as a certification of choice from numerous global retailers including Loblaw’s, IKEA, Carrefour, Coles, Lidl and Sysco Food Services. The first farm achieved certification in 2012 and there are now 456 farms certified to the ASC standard. At present, nearly a quarter of all the farmed salmon produced around the world is ASC certified and that number is growing each month due to the commitments of retailers, producers and organisations such as the Global Salmon Initiative, which represents over 50% of the global farmed salmon sector and have committed to certify all of their members to the ASC standards.

In order to fulfil its mission to help move the aquaculture industry towards sustainably and social responsibility, the ASC has made and continues to make programmatic improvements. A new standard for seriola and cobia was introduced in 2016 and a number of other standards are being developed, including sea bream, sea bass and meagre and, jointly with the MSC, a standard for seaweed. The operational review has just been completed and updated standards for salmon and tilapia have been published. An updated standard for pangasius will follow shortly. In addition, the ASC is making progress on the ASC Aligned Farm Standard (previously referred to as the ASC Core Standard) and a new Feed Standard that will improve the sustainability of both marine and terrestrial ingredients for aqua feed will be released by the end of the year.