GlobalGAP on Wednesday announced a partnership with the World Wildlife Fund to certify fish farms in an effort to minimize the negative impacts associated with aquaculture.
By supplementing its existing food safety, environmental and social standards with the metrics-based environmental and social standards under development by the WWF Aquaculture Dialogues, GlobalGAP will offer an expansion to its program so fish farms can be certified in one step.
Throughout the remainder of the year, WWF will work with GlobalGAP to create checklists, guidance documents and training materials for auditors who will certify aquaculture producers.
GlobalGAP is expected to offer the new certification option by year’s end.
The partnership is a means to provide coverage to aquaculture products in advance of the formation of the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) in 2011. The ASC will be responsible for working with third-party entities to certify farms in compliance with the Dialogue standards. When the ASC is established, the boards of GlobalGAP and ASC will assess whether to continue the partnership.
The WWF/GlobalGAP agreement is non-exclusive, which means other entities can certify producers that adopt the standards prior to the start-up of the ASC, as long as they meet the criteria established by WWF. All certification done prior to the creation of the ASC will be business-to-business. The ASC certification will be business-to-consumer by providing a consumer eco-label.
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