Sustainable Fisheries Partnership and Seafood Souq Ink Historic Partnership to Boost MENA Seafood Transparency

BARCELONA – The Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) and UAE-based technology firm Seafood Souq have officially signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), marking a significant milestone for seafood supply chain transparency in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The agreement was formalized during the 2026 Seafood Expo Global in Barcelona.

This collaboration represents the SFP’s first formal partnership within the Middle East, a region increasingly recognized as both a vital global seafood trading hub and a growing leader in supply chain digitalization.

Bridging Traceability and Sustainability

The partnership is designed to tackle the inherent opacity of global seafood supply chains by integrating advanced digital traceability with science-backed sustainability analytics.

Under the agreement, the organizations will combine their complementary strengths:

• Seafood Souq’s Digital Infrastructure: The Dubai-based company will leverage its “SFS” technology suite. This platform is a Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability (GDST)-aligned system that digitizes the entire seafood journey—from “bait to plate.” By capturing critical tracking events and data elements, the technology ensures compliance with rigorous international standards, including the EU Catch Documentation and U.S. FDA’s FSMA 204 regulations.

• SFP’s Sustainability Expertise: The SFP brings over two decades of experience in global fisheries and aquaculture improvement. They will integrate their “Seafood Metrics” platform into the collaboration. Powered by the FishSource database, this risk-based analytical tool provides buyers and suppliers with actionable insights regarding sustainability performance, sourcing risks, and supply reliability.

A Response to Global Market Demands

The need for such a partnership is driven by the urgent challenges facing the global seafood industry, including fragmented supply chains, mislabeling, and the persistent threat of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

“The Middle East is a critical node in the global seafood trade, and it is a region where the demand for transparency and responsible sourcing is growing rapidly,”

said David Parreño Duque, SFP Partnerships Engagement Specialist.

He noted that the partnership allows the SFP to bring its risk-based analytics directly into Seafood Souq’s established infrastructure.

Scott Chambers, CEO of Seafood Souq, echoed this sentiment, emphasizing that the union of real-time traceability and expert sustainability data will provide businesses in the MENA region with the clarity required to make more responsible sourcing decisions.

Impact on the MENA Region

By moving away from manual, fragmented processes toward structured, real-time data, the partnership aims to create a “feedback loop” where traceability data informs sustainability assessments, and those insights guide procurement decisions.

For stakeholders ranging from hospitality and retail to government bodies, this initiative is expected to enhance consumer confidence, streamline regulatory compliance, and support broader efforts to build a more transparent and trustworthy global seafood system.

Sustainable Fisheries Partnership and Seafood Souq Ink Historic Partnership to Boost MENA Seafood Transparency