May 8, 2014
 

 

R.H. Ward (Welton) Ltd.'s The Fish Company, in the United Kingdom, is Europe's first tilapia farm to attain Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certification awarded by the Global Aquaculture Alliance.

Best Aquaculture Practices, a division of the Global Aquaculture Alliance, is an international certification programme based on independent audits and science-based standards for the entire aquaculture supply chain – farms, hatcheries, processing plants and feed mills.

Located in Welton Cliff, Lincolnshire, the farm, which has been in operation since 2007, earned BAP certification in April. The tilapia are reared in a centrally heated recirculating system inside a custom-built 1080-square-metre facility.

Currently, the company produces approximately 50 tonnes of tilapia annually but hopes to reach full production capacity of approximately 100 tonnes in the near future. The fish are processed by B & L Filleting, a local, family-owned seafood-processing company in Grimsby, and are sold as gutted, whole round red tilapia to UK supermarkets under the "The Fish Company" brand.

"It has been essential for The Fish Company to maintain a standard of production in line with the stringent quality guidelines that consumers have come to expect," said Richard Beckett of R.H. Ward. "Attaining the BAP certification provides assurances to our customers that our facility meets international quality standards and is an endorsement of our commitment to advanced, sustainable fish farming."