New stewardship standard afoot

Cobia are produced in many parts of Asia and off the coast of the United States, Mexico and Panama, while seriola are mainly farmed in the Republic of Korea and Japan. The new standard will join those already up and running for tilapia, pangasius, salmon, shrimp, trout, bivalves and abalone.

Bas Geerts, ASC Standards Director, said: "I'm delighted this standard has been handed over to ASC, it has been long awaited. It is thanks to the remarkable commitment of the 100s of people who put in so many hours over the last few years to the multi-stakeholder dialogues that we have such a robust standard for responsible seriola and cobia farming. Our next step is to develop the audit manual and then we are ready for pilot testing."

The ASC will now coordinate the development of the audit manual and then will launch the pilot farm audits. Interest in the pilot testing has so far been shown globally from farms in Japan, Brazil and Mexico.

These pilots will ensure the standard for seriola and cobia can be thoroughly tested and give farms a chance to see how their operations match up against the standard.

Once the pilot audits have finished the results will be used to inform the final version of the audit manual. This will guide certifiers and farmers in how the standard should be applied.

When the standard is live, before certifiers can formally undertake audits, their staff will be trained in the application of the standard and their companies must successfully conclude the third party accreditation process administered through Accreditation Services International.

The ASC anticipates that the standard and audit manual will be ready for launch in the last quarter of 2015.