With the first half of 2018 behind it, the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) has announced that the number of Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP)-certified facilities is up 14.3% this year.
At the end of June, there were 2079 BAP-certified processing plants, farms, hatcheries and feed mills in 34 countries and six continents. That’s up from 1819 at the end of 2017.
Of the 2079, 1343 are farms, 411 are processing plants, 212 are hatcheries and 113 are feed mills. The BAP programme reached a milestone in March when it surpassed the 2000-facility mark for the first time.
As in previous years, there have been a number of first for the BAP program this year, including the world’s first BAP-certified recirculating aquaculture system and seriola farm, first company to offer four-star BAP Mediterranean sea bass and sea bream, first company to offer four-star BAP king salmon, first Scottish company to attain BAP certification (for Atlantic salmon), first pet food product to carry to BAP label and first company to offer four-star BAP oysters.
BAP is the world’s most comprehensive third-party aquaculture certification program, with aquaculture standards encompassing environmental responsibility, social responsibility, food safety, animal health and welfare and traceability. It’s also the only programme to cover the entire aquaculture production chain — processing plants, farms, hatcheries and feed mills.
