Chilean Outfit Is World’s First Two-Star BAP Mussel Group
Congratulations to St. Andrews S.A., the world’s first group to achieve two-star Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) status for mussels, the Global Aquaculture Alliance announced in mid-May.
Two-star BAP status denotes that the processing plants and farms from which a group sources are BAP certified.
St. Andrews is also Chile’s first mussel farm and second processing plant to earn BAP certification.
St. Andrews’ processing plant in Quemchi, on Chiloé Island, and seven of its mussel farm sites in the same area earned BAP certification on May 7. St. Andrews processes about 50,000 metric tons of mussels annually, or about 25,000 metric tons in each of its two processing plants. (The company also operates a processing plant in Chonchi, also on Chiloé Island.) The company’s mussel products are marketed in Europe (France, Italy, Russia, Spain and the United Kingdom), Asia (China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand) and the United States. Product forms include IQF mussel meat, whole shell vacuum-packed mussels and half shell vacuum-packed mussels.
Mussel processing plants became eligible for BAP certification with the completion of the BAP mussel farm standards in August 2013. Currently, there are a total of 14 BAP-certified mussel farm sites and six BAP-certified mussel processing plants between Canada and Chile.
About BAP
Best Aquaculture Practices is an international certification program based on achievable, science-based and continuously improved performance standards for the entire aquaculture supply chain — farms, hatcheries, processing plants and feed mills — that assure healthful foods produced through environmentally and socially responsible means. BAP certification is based on independent audits that evaluate compliance with the BAP standards developed by the Global Aquaculture Alliance. For more information on BAP, visit http://bap.gaalliance.org.
