Pacific Andes International Holdings is set to roll out a traceability redesign project in 2014, allowing it to track any fish product, after matching Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) chain of custody requirements.

The Hong Kong-based group' s traceability systems were initially " redesigned" in 2013 to demonstrate compliance with MSC requirements, the company noted, in its latest sustainability report.

Since then, " traceability, storage and record-keeping systems prove that only seafood from a certified fishery carries the MSC eco-label, and that this fish is kept separate from non-certified fish" , said Pacific Andes, which is the world' s largest producer of pollock fillets, from its vast Hongdao processing complex in Qingdao, China. The plant has capacity to produce 60,000 metric tons of fillets.

The company has since expanded this traceability system and plans to continue to develop it. " While the initial purpose was to fulfill the requirements of the MSC standard, we further expanded this traceability redesign project to all our products," the company states.

This year, the company plans to expand its system to involve a more sophisticated mapping exercise developing further barcoding per species, per area, enabling it to rely fully on an electronic system to map and trace any fish product, it said.

Pink salmon forms 49.1% of Pacific Andes' MSC wild catch supply, while pollock represents 28.4%. Then cod is 16.2%, and chum salmon, haddock, yellowfin sole and black cod make up the remainder.