BAP Spotlight Story: TOBA Tilapia
The Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) program’s “Spotlight Stories” highlight BAP-certified facilities around the world and the stories of the people behind them. This Spotlight Story features TOBA Tilapia in Indonesia.
What inspired you to become involved in the seafood industry?
With demand rising and many marine fish stocks already overfished, nearly half of all seafood now comes from aquaculture, which has grown at a double-digit clip for decades. Aquaculture has one big advantage over land animals, which is we feed them a lot less. So it’s an ideal animal protein source to feeding the growing world population, with the least demand on the earth’s resources.
When was TOBA Tilapia established and how many employees are there?
Our TOBA Tilapia fully integrated operation was established in 2013 and we currently have more than 800 employees.
How has the aquaculture industry impacted your life personally?
The aquaculture industry has impacted my life in many ways, especially taking care of nature. We need to respect Mother Nature, never overexploit it and ensure we use responsible and sustainable farming practices for future generations.
How is TOBA Tilapia involved in the local community?
TOBA Tilapia realizes it is very important to give back to the community because we’re part of our local community and we have the responsibility to grow together with them socially and economically. We carried out social responsibility programs and activities that focus on kids, community development, education and environmental conservation, such as:
- Having fun with pre-school children in the remote area
- Conducting Japfa 4-Kids activities, such as educating elementary school students to learn English, broadening their horizons by watching movies regularly, teaching them about hygiene and nature conservation, etc.
- Building toilets for elementary schools
- Building a drinking water treatment facility from Lake Toba’s water
- Planting endemic trees for 20 hectares and built rain water catchments
- Actively contributing in Search and Rescue activities if there is any incident surrounding our location
What year did your facility become BAP-certified and what were the main motivations in deciding to do so?
Our TOBA Tilapia farm was certified in 2014, our processing facility was certified in 2016, our feed mill was certified in 2017 and our hatchery was certified in 2018. The main motivator in getting BAP-certified is we understand that sustainability is the only way for long-term success, and we need to get the acknowledgment that our operations are conducted in a sustainable way, which motivates us to keep doing things in a sustainable way.
How has becoming certified improved your business?
By becoming a BAP-certified company, we remind ourselves to always be responsible in everything that we do, whether it’s at the feed mill, hatchery, farm or processing plant. We only have one option and that is to do things in a sustainable way.
