You may recognize it: you consciously want to make a sustainable purchase. Then it is important to know the quality and origin of a product. And that is not always easy.
For example, I recently bought a new sports watch online from a well-known American brand. However, the manual was completely in Chinese; it was impossible to make sense of it. The supplier had just included a bill with some instructions, but otherwise the message was mainly: “figure it out”. I had no idea who had actually made it, what the quality was or whether it had been produced sustainably.
At such a moment you wonder: how long will this product actually last? Did the production perhaps involve forced labor or exploitation? How safe and recyclable are the materials used. And might there even be spy software installed? You regularly read about these kinds of abuses, and cooperating with these kinds of practices is the last thing you want to do with your purchase. But you simply don’t have the time to get to the bottom of these questions for every purchase.
To help consumers make conscious, sustainable choices, the European Union is pushing for more transparency, better digital traceability and less room for illegal practices for a large number of product groups. With the advent of the digital product passport (DPP), this will become very concrete. Starting in 2024, the EU will require information on origin, materials, environmental impact and documentation to be digitally available for almost all products (food excepted). This makes the DPP a new foundation for Europe’s sustainability ambitions.
Each product is given a unique identification code that can be scanned. Consumers can then easily check whether the products are of “good origin”; in other words, produced with respect for climate, nature and people. That sounds like a particularly useful tool.
In parallel with this general development, the revised EU Fisheries Control Regulation (EU 2023/2842) is coming into force. This introduces mandatory digital traceability for almost all fish products in the EU. For fresh and frozen fish this already applies in 2026, for processed products it will follow in 2029. The goal? To restore confidence in a chain of which more than 70% of consumption consists of imports. A chain, moreover, in which honest producers still too often have to compete with fish of unclear origin.
Resistance in the chain? That is quite understandable. For many entrepreneurs in trade and processing, this feels like a substantial new administrative burden. In a sector where batches from all over the world are mixed, processed and traded, it is stupidly complex to record every step digitally. Sure, I’m sure there are good technical solutions available or in the works, but something like this costs time and money. There are real concerns that smaller chain partners will go head-to-head if these systems are implemented too quickly or too rigidly.
But the bigger picture counts too. The EU is simultaneously tackling something the industry has suffered from for years: illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU fishing). These practices undermine the market, depress prices and damage the reputation of the entire chain. Soon, only fish accompanied by a validated catch certificate will be allowed to be imported. Moreover, from January 10, 2026, this will be compulsorily done digitally through the new CATCH system.
This system should prevent paper certificates – for years the weak spot – from simply disappearing in drawers or in countries with “flexible” interpretations of the rules. Digital exchange and automatic controls should finally make the EU market truly watertight for illegal fish. The intention is good, although it must of course remain workable in practice.
Between burden and opportunity
What we see is a fish chain that has to register much more, but also a chain that can distinguish itself better as a result. The more transparency we demand, the more difficult it becomes for non-EU wrongdoers to enter our market. That immediately strengthens the position of the bona fide entrepreneurs.
The digital shift is asking a lot, but ultimately it may actually help make the fish chain more credible, competitive and sustainable. Perhaps this is the moment when, despite the bumps in the road, the chain can show how valuable transparency really is. However, entrepreneurs must be given time to adapt to this new reality.
In any case, as a consumer, I would like more insight into the origin of the products I buy. Whether that is a sports watch, or an (h)honest piece of fish.