Marine Harvest Canada Earns Three-Star BAP Certification
July, 2013
The Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) in early July congratulated Marine Harvest Canada (MHC) for becoming British Columbia’s first salmon company to achieve three-star Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certification.
On July 3, MHC’s Port Hardy processing plant earned BAP certification, joining the company’s BAP-certified salmon farms and the Skretting Canada feed mill from which it sources feed. The first five Marine Harvest Canada salmon farm sites earned BAP certification in 2012, the same year that Skretting Canada’s two feed mills in British Columbia and New Brunswick attained the distinction.
“Since the third-party audited BAP seafood processing plant standards meet Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) requirements, MHC customers are assured that product meets high food safety and quality standards,” said Clare Backman, MHC’s sustainability programs director. “And because all BAP standards encompass social and environmental aspects, customers know that the salmon they receive is produced in a responsible and sustainable manner.”
Located on the northern tip of Vancouver Island, MHC’s Port Hardy facility processes more than 35,000 tons of Atlantic salmon annually. Built in 2003, the facility employs about 80 people.
MHC said it plans to pursue certification of its Kitasoo processing plant in Klemtu, British Columbia. The company also said it plans to seek four-star status once the BAP salmon hatchery standards are completed.
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/.
