The fish feed company Skretting/Nutreco has confirmed purchasing fishmeal with origin in Morocco’s illegal fisheries in occupied Western Sahara. 

The issue was first raised with Skretting by the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara in correspondence from 2019, which has not been published until now. At the time, the company stated that “The fish meal we refer to is fully IFFO RS certified, meaning the fishery has been audited against responsible practices criteria, specifically sourcing, manufacture and supply”. 

IFFO RS is the former name of MarinTrust. Neither Skretting Turkey nor MarinTrust has responded to repeated questions as to how certification of fisheries in the occupied territory is possible. 

But the MarinTrust certification scheme itself cannot be relied upon. 

Western Sahara Resource Watch (WSRW) earlier this week documented that that MarinTrust certificates contain factual errors regarding the country of operation, making it unclear how legality checks could have been carried out. In several cases, the MarinTrust certificates has even listed the wrong Economic Exclusive Zone (EEZ) in which fisheries take place. 

“Certificates built on wrong geography cannot be credible. A responsible certification must specify the relevant legal framework it is measured against. Skretting cannot use such an unreliable scheme to justify sourcing from occupied territory,” said Erik Hagen of WSRW.

MarinTrust’s own standards even claim to “draw upon” the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). However, UNCLOS grants sovereign rights over fisheries and EEZs to the recognized coastal state. The European Court of Justice ruled in 2018 (C-266/16, paras 66–69) that Morocco is not the coastal state of Western Sahara under international law, meaning Morocco has no recognised sovereign rights over Western Sahara’s waters.

No answers have been provided by the exporting companies, MarinTrust, or the third-party certifiers as to how this structure of false geographic references has been created.

In a letter from Skretting Turkey to WSRW, the company failed to reply to WSRW’s questions why MarinTrust certificates are relevant in this context. 

MarinTrust has not answered WSRW’s inquiries. 

WSRW contacted a number of Moroccan fish oil and fish meal exporters in occupied Western Sahara that appear to hold MarinTrust certificates. None replied.

WSRW also contacted the Swiss certification company SGS, the issuer of certificates containing false maritime and territorial information. SGS did not respond. SGS is heavily involved in the occupied territory on several fronts. WSRW will report on that company later. 

In addition to referring to MarinTrust, Skretting Turkey also promoted a claim of certification under Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP). WSRW wrote in September that it was unable to find any match in BAP’s official registry to the Turkish site. Skretting did not respond when confronted about the discrepancy and continued to display the claim on its website. The false BAP reference was removed only after BAP itself contacted Skretting Turkey in September 2025. 

“By purchasing from occupied Western Sahara, Skretting Turkey contributes to sustaining the occupation. Nutreco/Skretting must urgently reassess its use of certification claims. It should not display certificates it does not hold, it should respond to civil society inquiries, and it must stop relying on MarinTrust documents that contain serious factual errors, including incorrect country information,” WSRW stated.

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