New milestone for ASC
The successful certification of three mussel farms run by Ria Austral in Chile means that over 200 farms have now achieved ASC certification world-wide.
“The certification of more than 200 farms is a significant benchmark for the programme and a clear indicator of the growing importance of responsible aquaculture,” said Chris Ninnes, CEO of ASC. “We are thrilled that so many producers have made the choice to engage with the ASC and equally pleased that the pipeline of farms under assessment maintains this strong growth. Collectively this benefits the environment, the farm workers and adjacent communities.”
The number of ASC certified farms against all standards has grown exponentially each year. Between January 2015 and January 2016, 81 farms become certified, a 65 per cent increase over the number of farms participating in the programme over the 12-month period. Furthermore, ASC has good reason to anticipate another phase of strong growth as close to 100 additional farms are currently in assessment.
The growing engagement of farms in the ASC programme has been matched by significant commitments from influential seafood buyers and producers, including the Rio 2016 Olympic Games who have pledged to source seafood from ASC certified farms throughout the Olympic village for both athletes and spectators.
The commitment of retailers and seafood brands has also been particularly strong across the globe.
AEON, the largest retailer in Asia, has recently made ASC certified farmed shrimp products available in each of their retail outlets throughout Japan; Woolworths became the first market to introduce ASC certified tilapia products in in South Africa in November; Coles was the first major supermarket in Australia to introduce ASC certified salmon in their deli.
In Belgium, Colruyt is offering a broad range of certified product; Lidl Germany published a very ambitious commitment to sell ASC certified and labelled farmed fish in its permanent selection from 2018; retailers in the Netherlands - such as Albert Heijn, Jumbo, PLUS, Aldi and Lidl - are selling an increasing amount of ASC salmon; and the largest global commitment to date was announced in the autumn of 2015 when IKEA pledged to offer only ASC certified farmed seafood across all their stores in 47 countries.
Currently, the top ASC certified species is salmon. The 84 salmon farms included in the official count are in line with the industry commitment to the Global Salmon Initiative. This is closely followed by shrimp, with 34 shrimp farms entering the programme in 2015.
