BAP Sets Sights On 1,500 Certified Facilities
The Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) third-party certification program is well on track to surpass the 1,500-facility mark in the fourth quarter of 2016.
The number of BAP-certified processing plants, farms, hatcheries and feed mills worldwide reached 1,465 at the end of October, with the addition of 35 new BAP-certified facilities. Last month’s total includes 25 farms, seven hatcheries, two processing plants and one feed mill.
So far this year, 470 processing plants, farms, hatcheries and feed mills have attained BAP certification for the first time. The number of BAP-certified facilities has more than doubled in the past two years.
The volume of product originating from BAP-certified facilities annually stands at 2.17 million metric tons, up from 1.45 million metric tons at the end of 2015.
Additionally, there were a number of firsts in October — the first salmon producer in North America to complete BAP’s new multi-site cluster program (BAP-C) (Canada’s Northern Harvest Sea Farms); the first salmon producer in Australasia to be eligible to offer three-star BAP salmon (New Zealand King Salmon); and the first rainbow trout producer in the Eastern Hemisphere to attain BAP certification (Australia’s Goulburn River Trout, pictured here).
BAP is the world’s most comprehensive third-party aquaculture certification program, with standards encompassing environmental responsibility, social responsibility, food safety, animal health and welfare and traceability.
