Accused of greenwashing and opacity, the French company Olvea replies. Is it convincing?

End of June, Olvea, the French company incriminated in our article OLVEA imports fish oil from West Africa: Greenwashing in action, transparency at a standstill, responded (see below a screenshot) publicly to our criticisms. This is a most welcome step, as the company has been known for not answering questions from the media.

The discussion on Olvea’s role in the exploitation of West Africa small pelagics for fishoil comes as the OECD’s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct have recently been updated and strengthened, to ensure responsible business conduct regarding their impacts across areas such as climate change, biodiversity and supply chain due diligence. Based on its record in Mauritania fishoil value chain, would Olvea pass the test?

This is a screenshot from the original comment by Olvea which was posted on the article OLVEA imports fish oil from West Africa: Greenwashing in action, transparency at a standstill. To see the original comment, please scroll down to the bottom of the page of the post.

Despite recent efforts, sardinellas in West Africa are still over-exploited

In its comments, Olvea first points out that “many sources of information quoted rely on data dating back from 2017, failing to acknowledge the progress made by the industry in recent years, such as regulatory changes and collective efforts by local stakeholders.” That seems to suggest that efforts by the industry have somewhat led to a recovery of the West Africa small pelagic resources used for reduction in fishmeal and fishoil.

We do acknowledge the progress made, - by the Mauritanian government rather than by the fishmeal/fishoil industry -, in particular the adoption by Mauritania, in 2022, of the management plan for small pelagics. This was a necessary step, supported by the EU in the 2021 EU - Mauritania Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement (SFPA) protocol.

In the last two years, Mauritanian authorities have also adopted specific measures to address the need to reduce fishmeal and fish oil production, through rules aimed at increasing traceability and certification of products, as well as to improve data collection. Moreover, an ambitious target for human consumption of fishery products has been set in the national strategy.

However, the resources of small pelagics, sardinellas in particular, have yet to show any sign of recuperation. In 2022, scientists confirmed the state of over-exploitation of round and flat sardinellas, Atlantic horse mackerel, and bonga – all small pelagics which find their way in fishmeal and fishoil production in Mauritania. Scientists further call for completely prohibiting the use of sardinellas for the manufacture of fishmeal and fishoil.

Commenting on the implementation of Mauritania small pelagics management plan, the EU Long Distance Fisheries Advisory Council, composed of representatives of EU fisheries value chain and civil society organisations, insisted that “the processing of vast, largely unknown, quantities of small pelagics into fishmeal and fish oil is still an important concern.” The lack of data on the catches used for fishmeal and fishoil remains an obstacle to sustainable fisheries management.

The French company Olvea claims it sources its oils from waters where fish stocks are not overexploited, yet this is far from true in West Africa where sardinella stock, a small pelagic, is at risk of collapsing. Photo: A screenshot of Olvea website homepage.

Contrary to what Olvea seems to imply, CFFA maintains that the fishmeal and fishoil industry in Mauritania is contributing to the depletion of small pelagic stocks, negatively impacting the food security of West African populations. Scientific evidence of this has been produced for years, and there are no credible reports that suggest the situation is now resolved.

FIP… or fib? wishful thinking or reality?

In its plea, Olvea emphasizes that it is actively engaged in implementing and promoting sustainable practices across their entire value chain, in accordance with international standards. In particular, the company suggests that the work they have initiated in 2017 under the "Fisheries Improvement Project" (FIP) on small pelagics in Mauritania supports the development of better environmental and social practices: “OLVEA Fish Oils has obtained MSC, MarinTrust Chain of Custody and Friend of the Sea certifications.”

As argued previously by CFFA, the Fisheries Improvement Project in Mauritania provides companies with positive but undeserved public relations and Olvea assertion illustrates that. A FIP is simply a process designed to help companies gain an ecolabel. It is, therefore, indicative of a fishery not even meeting the minimum requirements of voluntary eco-labels, including those provided by Marin Trust, MSC and Friends of the Seas.

Fishmeal and fish oil production contributes to overexploitation of sardinella. Sardinella is a staple food in the region, essential for food security and heavily contributing to the livelihoods of artisanal fishing communities. Photo: A fishmeal factory, screenshot of the ARTE documentary.

Statements on Olvea website, underlining their commitment to support the development of better environmental and social practices, falsely give the impression that fish oil they sourced in Mauritania already meet the requirements of multiple eco-labels, whilst in fact, there is only a process under way to help Olvea potentially gain such ecolabels in the future.

As underlined by the OECD, a simple company commitment to address environmental impacts, such as biodiversity loss and degradation of marine ecosystems, is not sufficient to consider the environmental issue adequately addressed.

Multi stakeholder initiatives, a way to dilute companies’ responsibilities?

Companies involved in the FIP in Mauritania, like Olvea, are aware of the negative social and environmental impacts of their fishmeal and fishoil production operations. When CFFA raised concerns about the FIP, we were told that a group of companies, including Olvea, had formed a global roundtable on marine fish ingredients [Ed. Scroll down the link to see comments below the article] in collaboration with the London-based NGO Sustainable Fisheries Partnership and the IFFO. One of the first activities this roundtable started with was a study into the social impacts of the fish reduction industry in Mauritania. CFFA was contacted in 2021 by the consultants preparing this study. To CFFA’s knowledge, the results of this study have yet to be made public.

It needs to be noted that the revised OECD’s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct have something to say about such multi stakeholder initiatives (MSI). They clarify that although enterprises can collaborate at a multistakeholder level, ‘they remain individually responsible for ensuring that their due diligence is carried out effectively’ (see page 17, commentary 12).  

The slippery slope argument

As a final comment, Olvea wonders whether existing environmental and social challenges “will go away if we disengage from Mauritania? Certainly not, it is not sure that other foreign actors would be as concerned about sustainability as we are." This is a poor argument, often used by European-based destructive and polluting industries when talking about their operations in developing countries: if we are not there, things will be worse.

One of the objectives of the FIP is to refocus the fishery on human consumption. Yet this objective has failed. Last year the production of fishmeal and fishoil consumed 600,000 tonnes of wild fish, the most ever on record. Photo: The fish market in Bissau, Guinea Bissau, by Carmen Abd Ali.

This fallacy has been so widely used, that it even has a name: “the slippery slope argument” – whereby a course of action – Olvea stopping to import fishoil made from the over-exploited west African small pelagics- is rejected because, with little or no evidence, the company insists that it will result in a worse situation. Well, in Mauritania, things are bad precisely because companies like Olvea fuel the over-exploitation of small pelagics, destined to feed the well-fed Europeans’ appetite for products such as farmed salmon or dietary supplements and beauty products, to the detriment of West African populations food security.

Making such argument also suggests that the fisheries situation depends on the goodwill of private actors like Olvea, rather than national Mauritanian authorities. This is misplaced arrogance, as in the last decade, it is the Mauritanian authorities which have initiated measures and policies to limit the use of small pelagics in fishmeal.

So, to answer Olvea’s question, yes, European companies like them should disengage from Mauritania fishmeal and fishoil industries.

This was our message five years ago.

This our message today.

Banner photo: The entrance of the harbour of Fécamp, in Normandy, by Benoît Deschasaux.

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