How Profand Strengthened Its Human Rights Commitment with Sedex

Profand is a multinational fishing group that produces healthy, sustainable food across five countries. With 12 factories, 24 fishing vessels, and aquaculture farms in Spain, Senegal, Peru, Argentina, the U.S., Morocco, Greece, and Ecuador, Profand operates a globally distributed supply chain.

Thanks to Sedex, Profand has successfully audited over 95% of its workforce across processing plants, warehouses, and aquaculture farms on four continents. While the company already upheld strong human rights and labor standards, working with Sedex enabled them to consolidate data, identify improvement opportunities, and systematically verify compliance across all operations.

The Challenge

Before adopting Sedex, Profand faced several challenges in managing social and environmental performance across its international operations, despite holding multiple certifications (IFS, MSC, and ISO 14001) the company faced:

Limited visibility into supply chain practices across diverse regulatory environments
Operational inefficiencies and duplicated assessments and audits
Slow response to increasingly stringent customer and regulatory demands
Difficulty producing comprehensive and consistent sustainability reports

Previous tools did not provide a centralized solution or an effective collaboration network—both critical to Profand’s needs to effectively manage its global operations.

Why It mattered

These challenges had a direct business impact, including:

Time and resources lost due to duplicated processes
Missed commercial opportunities with international clients, particularly in the U.S. and Europe
Increased exposure to compliance risks due to gaps in traceability
Difficulty demonstrating transparency and accountability to stakeholders

The Solution

Profand selected Sedex for its standardized, internationally recognized platform for responsible supply chain management—trusted by global buyers.

Implementation followed a strategic, phased approach:

1. Processing plants in Spain

2. Expansion to international sites

3. Inclusion of aquaculture farms

A major focus was aligning internal policies to Sedex standards, including:

Human Rights Policy
Supplier Code of Conduct
Social risk assessment protocols

Close collaboration with the Sedex account management team in London was essential to success.

Profand particularly valued:

The Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) to identify risks and strengths prior to audits
Structured corrective action plans tied to audit outcomes
Ongoing technical guidance from the Sedex team

The Results

With this approach, Profand achieved:

Stronger visibility into social and environmental risks across the value chain
Faster, data-driven decision-making
Proactive compliance with customer and regulatory requirements
Significant reduction in human rights, social, and occupational safety risks

Key outcome:

Sites initially classified as “Medium Risk” improved to “Low Risk” within three months after implementing SMETA audit action plans.

Today, over 95% of Profand’s subsidiaries are Sedex-registered and audited under social criteria—with multiple sites successfully re-audited, showing fewer non-conformities.

Unexpected benefits included:

Increased local engagement in sustainability and ESG initiatives
New improvement opportunities around emergency response and gender equality

Looking Ahead

Profand’s perspective on Sedex has evolved:

“At first, it was just a compliance tool. Now we see it as a lever for transformation and a genuine commitment to sustainability.”

The company is now exploring how Sedex can support social and environmental audits across its fishing fleets, aiming to extend due diligence principles into the maritime sector.

Advice to Other Businesses

“It’s not just about compliance. It’s about anticipating risks, improving processes, and building trust with clients and consumers.
Start early, involve your local teams, and treat sustainability as a competitive advantage.”

“Sedex has been key in professionalizing and harmonizing our social management across all global operations. It’s a tool that not only helps us comply—but helps us improve.”