Agifish obtains first Friend of the Sea certification for pangasius.
One of the pangasius farms managed by Vietnamese-based Agifish has become the first production site to obtain Friend of the Sea certification for the species.
The fish will be traded by international food giant DKSH.
To meet the NGO’s aquaculture sustainability criteria, Agifish’s farm was independently audited for more than six months.
A number of initial “non-conformities” made it necessary to implement further safety and pollution prevention measures at the farm.
Most of the corrective actions focused on setting up a rigorous water parameters analysis programme and a number of new standards of practice.
Thomas Schefer, DKSH’s area manager for seafood in Europe, described the certification as “a milestone in Vietnamese fish farming”.
Friend of the Sea director Paolo Bray said he hoped the move would generate further changes and improvements in the Vietnamese pangasius production industry.
“Audits can be very useful in leading companies toward a continuous improvement of their practices towards sustainability,” Bray said.
DKSH is already selling Friend of the Sea-certified black tiger shrimp from Vietnam.
