Photo: from left to right are ASC CEO Chris Ninnes, GAA CFO Jeff Fort and GLOBALG.A.P. Chairman Guy Callebaut. The three participated in a brief ceremony at the Brussels Exhibition Centre along with Dan Lee, standards coordinator for GAA’s Best Aquaculture Practices division, and other ASC and GLOBALG.A.P. representatives.
Three leading aquaculture certification programs, ASC, BAP and GLOBALG.A.P. have now drafted and agreed combined checklists for farms that seek more than one certificate. A combined checklist minimizes duplication of audit points between schemes and will comprise all the audit points of one standard supplemented by specific add-on clauses for the other standard(s).
A farm that seeks multiple certifications can select any one of the three programs as the primary standard and then select the desired add-on(s). If a farm proves to be compliant with the schemes’ standards it may be able to gain two certificates (or later, even three) through this process.
Combined audits for ASC and GLOBALG.A.P. covering shrimp, salmon and pangasius; for GLOBALG.A.P. and BAP covering finfish and crustaceans; and for ASC and BAP covering pangasius, are available for piloting now and, if successful, they can lead to farms obtaining multiple certificates. Other species are likely to be considered after the pilots have been evaluated and other combined pilot audits will be available soon.
Auditors will be able to combine audits to a large extent. In order for them to grant certification against individual schemes they will need to meet all the scheme’s requirements.
The three organizations will continue to retain their independence while striving to offer further synergies wherever possible.
