Move to streamline aquaculture certification

GLOBALG.A.P, the farming certification organisation, announced this week that it will expand its 2015 push for international collaboration to include aquaculture.
The initiative will reduce the cost of certification by enabling combined audits said the group at Seafood Expo Global in Brussels.
With the two other leading aquaculture certification programmes, ASC and BAP, GlobalG.A.P. has supported the collaboration on drafting and agreeing combined checklists for farms that seek more than one certificate.
‘With more than 150,000 agricultural farms in 120 countries under certification, we are one of the world`s leading farm assurance systems and benchmarking organisations,’ said Guy Callebaut, chairman of the board, in Brussels. ‘
‘We are happy to also offer this experience to the aquaculture sector in an effort to promote and assure more sustainable and responsible practices for the benefit of all stakeholders and society at large.
‘We have to collaborate with organisations with whom we are able to create sustainable, mutually advantageous partnerships that also benefit farmers.’
GlobalG.A.P. has already fully implemented the partnership with FOS (Friend of the Sea) to offer an add-on module for aquaculture and thus add a consumer label to seafood products from GlobalG.A.P. certified farms.
A revised version of the aquaculture standard has been completed which ‘promises enhanced animal welfare and social responsibility aspects’, said GlobalG.A.P.’s senior expert Valeska Weymann.
Also in Brussels, GlobalG.A.P presented the Saudi Arabia National Aquaculture Group (NAQUA) with that country’s first aquaculture certification (shrimp and fish) and compound feed manufacturing certification.