For the first time, the World Benchmarking Alliance has ranked 30 of the largest seafood companies worldwide on their commitments, transparency, and performance to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A year ago, the newly formed World Benchmarking Alliance announced plans to rank seafood companies from 1 to 30 on their performance levels for the Seafood Stewardship Index. The new index presents an overall ranking based on the weighted sum of the results in five measurement areas, the World Benchmarking Alliance explained.The five areas are governance and management of stewardship practices, stewardship of the supply chain, ecosystems, human rights and working conditions, and local communities.

At the top of the ranking: Thai Union Group, which is known for its known for its John West and Chicken of the Sea brands. The company “stands out with robust environmental and social commitments, targets and activities on which it reports publicly,” the World Benchmarking Alliance said.

Mowi, a Norwegian integrated salmon farming company formerly known as Marine Harvest, ranked second while Thai-based conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Foods was ranked third. The alliance noted that both companies demonstrated strengths across most measurement areas.

“Charoen Pokphand Foods, one of the largest shrimp producers in the world, demonstrates strong human rights commitments and group-level sustainability strategies and targets,” the World Benchmarking Alliance said.

For companies at the bottom of the index, transparency was a major issue. One of the two state-owned companies in the index, Shanghai Fisheries General Corporation was ranked last. The alliance attributed this to a “serious lack of public disclosure across all measurement categories.”

US-based seafood companies were among those evaluated. Cargill Aqua Nutrition came in sixth, Bumble Bee Foods ranked 16th, Tri Marine Group ranked 17th, Pacific Seafood Group came in 24th, and Trident Seafoods was ranked 27th. Detailed rankings can be found here.

“The hope is that this benchmark will drive even greater transparency and encourage peer-to-peer learning to reach the ultimate end goal: more sustainable oceans for us all,” said Rik Beukers, the Seafood Stewardship Index lead at WBA.