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The Common Language Group

A group to bring together people who want to know more about the environmental, legal and production issues facing the UK seafood supply chain.

The Common Language Group (CLG) provides a safe meeting space to discuss the key issues facing a responsible seafood supply chain. The topics covered include fisheries management, legal fishing, fishing methods and how to trace and track seafood along the supply chain. It also covers how seafood is bought and eaten in and out of the home. It is an opportunity to share new ideas or case studies from around the world.

The group is led by our industry and we take responsibility for running the CLG. The Group has met three times a year since 2007. The CLG brings together people who represent the retail, processing, food service and restaurant industry. Other people who attend are not-for-profit voluntary groups, consumer groups, governments, scientists and producer organisations.

CLG meetings and bite-size meetings

There are generally three meetings a year. The presentations and minutes from the most recent meetings are below. Presentations and minutes from previous meetings are available from Karen Green.

We are running a mix of in person meetings and shorter online bite-size CLG sessions at the moment.

Next meeting

The next meeting will be an in person meeting in London on Tuesday 27 June 2023. The topic is Digitilisation of seafood supply chains. For further information, please contact: Karen Green

Previous two meetings

The role of Fishery Improvement Projects (FIPs) (29 March 2023). With a number of FIPs within Project UK approaching their endpoint this meeting looked at what success means and the next steps. This meeting looked at the FIPs within Project UK and the role of the market in creating these FIPs. It focussed on the FIPs that are approaching their end point to look at the measure of success, and the next steps if a FIP has not fully delivered in the timeframe, especially in terms of how this influences sourcing policies. It also looked at the future developments. See the presentations:

Fish stock status in the Northeast Atlantic (5 December 2022). Every year the European Commission asks the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) to draw up a report on the health status of fish populations in Europe. The 2022 report confirms the trends observed in the Atlantic over the past 20 years: decreasing overfishing and increasing abundance. In the northeast Atlantic zone, 72% of fish populations are not overexploited. Fish biomass has been climbing since 2007 and is 33% higher in 2020 than at the beginning of the 2000s for the best-tracked populations. It is 50% higher on average for other populations subject to less tracking. This meeting looked at the latest advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) on the key commercial species for the UK supply chain, and provided an update on a key initiative helping to support the pelagic sector. See the presentations:

CLG meeting notes

Notes and minutes from recent CLG bite-size and in person meetings can be viewed by following the links below.

CLG monthly newsletters

We send monthly emails with a round up of stories, research and projects in the seafood industry. Subscribe to receive our monthly update and meeting details.

Terms of Reference and archive

Contacts

For further information, please contact: Karen Green

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