Reduce environmental and social risks and transform into a food solutions company by providing “sustainable protein” and “creating health value”
Masaru Ikemi
President & CEO and Representative Director
Maruha Nichiro Corporation
At the Maruha Nichiro Group, we recognize that as social and environmental issues continuously evolve, it is essential for our company to transform as well. With this in mind, we have established a new corporate Purpose and Mission. Our Purpose statement is “For the ocean, for life,” which expresses the reason that the Maruha Nichiro Group exists, and our Mission statement is “Our cherished responsibility is to contribute to the happiness and well-being of all, starting with authentic, safe, and healthy food.” For the Group to continue to exist sustainably and fulfill its mission, we believe it is essential to identify the key social and environmental challenges, such as climate change, the depletion of natural marine resources, global food crises, and human rights violations, and designate them as our material issues (ciritcal priorities). By taking action to mitigate risks and offering opportunities as value to our stakeholders, we aim to make a meaningful contribution to society and the environment.
When formulating the new Mid-term Management Plan that starts in FY Ending March 2025, we carefully reviewed the items of materiality that were identified in FY Ended March 2021. After surveying company employees and external stakeholders for their views on what needs to be changed, we determined that the nine issues identified in FY Ended March 2021 remain the Group’s primary items of materiality (critical factors) today. Where necessary for each issue, we updated our key goal indicator (KGI) toward attaining our ideal state in 2030 and the key performance indicators (KPIs) based on the progress we achieved during the previous mid-term management plan. One of the changes we made to reduce material risk in the materiality (critical factors) area of “Actions for preserving biodiversity and ecosystems” was to set a KPI for “introducing and operating electronic traceability methods for certain fish species by 2027.” We also added the new goal of using digital transformation to address existing issues. For “Development of a sustainable supply chain,” which is an area encompassing significant material risk, we add the two new KPIs for “Introducing CSR audit methods by 2027” and for “Introducing methods to prevent the procurement of marine products from illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fisheries, and conducting lobbying activities.” Avoiding the procurement of marine products derived from IUU fishing remains a significant challenge. However, as the efforts of a single company have their limits, we aim to drive industry-wide improvement by taking a leadership role and working collaboratively with our stakeholders to address this issue.
In addition to reducing risks, we see great opportunity in delivering value to our customers through the Maruha Nichiro Group’s core strengths: “providing sustainable protein” and “creating health value”. We have set new KPIs for 2030 for the sales percentage of products which meet our original standards of sustainability seafood or nutrition. Through actively advancing these initiatives, we will provide value to our customers and solution for planet.
Since the beginning, we have been blessed by the ocean and nature. Under the purpose of “For the ocean, for life,” we believe it is our mission to contribute to the health of the entire planet by providing food to the world and passing on a rich natural environment to the next generation. Please look forward to the future of the Maruha Nichiro Group as a food solutions company.
