October 5, 2017

BAP certification gets formal recognition from GSSI

The Global Aquaculture Alliance's (GAA) Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certification on Wednesday, Oct. 4, received formal recognition from the Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative (GSSI), a global platform and partnership of seafood companies, NGOs, experts, governmental and intergovernmental organisations working toward more sustainable seafood.

The BAP certification is the first aquaculture scheme to achieve recognition and the fourth seafood certification scheme.

"I am pleased to express my sincere appreciation to the independent experts, the benchmark committee members, the GSSI secretariat and, of course, the GAA BAP staff for seeing BAP successfully through the benchmark process.

"This is a true testament to the successful design of the benchmark tool, which provides clarity on what constitutes a credible certification scheme and drives improvement wherever possible", said GSSI Steering Board Chair Bill DiMento, VP Quality Assurance, Sustainability and Government Affairs, High Liner Foods.

For his part, GAA Executive Director Wally Stevens said, "We are pleased to receive this recognition of our Best Aquaculture Practices programme. The BAP programme was first implemented in 2003 and this year will reach a milestone of 2,000 certified facilities around the world with anticipated farm-gate production exceeding 2 million metric tonnes".

The Global Aquaculture Alliance's mission is to promote responsible aquaculture practices through education, advocacy and demonstration.

GAA'S BAP certification programme is based on achievable, science-based and continuously improved performance standards for the entire aquaculture supply chain.