Consumers worldwide can now easily identify sustainably and responsibly caught and processed fish and seafood from Costa Rica, thanks to a new label launched on 11 November at an event held online and in the Pacific fishing town of Puntarenas.

The Pura Vida Costa Rican Seafood & Aquaculture collective mark, which means “pure life” in English, is the result of a project implemented since 2018 by UNCTAD and the UN’s Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea (DOALOS).

The mark is promoted in the country by the Ministry of Foreign Trade, the Costa Rican Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture (INCOPESCA) and the National Chamber of Fishery Products Companies (CANEPP).

“This initiative, which is closely linked to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, represents a valuable tool that can contribute to reducing poverty, improving food security, promoting gender equality, and improving the sustainable production and consumption of fishery and aquaculture products,” said Costa Rica’s foreign trade minister, Andrés Valenciano Yamuni.

INCOPESCA’s executive director, Daniel Carrasco, added: “Today, with great enthusiasm, national fishery and aquaculture products that comply with a series of conditions that promote social, economic and environmental responsibility, from their production to their delivery to the consumer, will be identified under a single mark.”