Seafood Source By Madelyn Kearns
November 11, 2019
Spanish-owned hotel company Iberostar Hotels & Resorts has hired Adriana Sanchez, formerly of Fair Trade, as the responsible seafood strategy director for its Wave of Change movement.
Sanchez joins the Iberostar team with more than 10 years of experience navigating seafood supply chains and supporting global fishery improvement projects (FIPs). She mostly recently served as the business development manager for Fair Trade USA’s seafood division, and before that, held the role of sustainability director for Miami, Florida-based seafood supplier Sea Delight.
“As the Wave of Change team grows, it is our mission to ensure that growth includes academic and industry experts in key strategy roles,” said Megan Morikawa, Iberostar’s global director for sustainability, in a press release. “With Adriana’s experience, we add momentum to our Marine Stewardship Council [chain of custody]-certified restaurants and work on traceability with FishWise and WWF-US. We further open new horizons for our strategic framework for seafood. We are thrilled to bring Adriana’s experience with industry, Fair Trade, and work with local fisheries to the seafood strategy for Iberostar Group.”
Iberostar, which operates more than 120 four-and-five star hotels across 19 countries, has long valued responsible tourism and ocean conservation – both concepts at the heart of the family-owned franchise’s Wave of Change initiative, according to Morikawa. The Wave of Change movement “works to lift up the local seafood in locations where they operate by observing local seafood bans and working with local fisheries and aquaculture farms to help them on a path towards certification,” according to Iberostar.
In her new role, Sanchez will be able to utilize her extensive FIP experience to help maintain “Iberostar’s momentum on the path towards responsible seafood,” the company said.
“There is great potential to utilize Iberostar’s purchasing power in local markets and drive impact in local communities to support much needed improvements of small-scale fisheries in the countries we operate,” said Sanchez. “I am truly inspired by the leadership demonstrated by Iberostar’s Wave of Change movement and look forward to supporting their commitments towards responsible seafood.”
The hotel chain has properties in Southern Europe and the Americas that are certified by both Marine Stewardship Council and Aquaculture Stewardship Council, making it the first hotel chain to achieve such a feat together in those respective regions, Iberostar said. Currently, the chain’s properties have seven MSC/ASC-certified restaurants: five in Spain, one in the Dominican Republic, and one in Mexico. In 2020, Iberostar plans to more than double that number to at least 15.