The Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) on Wednesday announced that Bas Geerts of UTZ Certified will be the organization’s new director of standards.
Geerts’ hiring marks the end of the development phase of the ASC and the beginning of the operational phase. Geerts, who will assume his role on 1 May, currently serves as manager of traceability services and the new business developer at UTZ Certified, which is based in the Netherlands. He previously served as the new business developer at the Netherlands office of the World Wildlife Fund.
The ASC also announced that the first four sets of farmed seafood standards developed by the WWF-organized Aquaculture Dialogues — tilapia, pangasius, abalone and bivalves — will officially be handed over to the ASC on 3 May during the the European Seafood Exposition in Brussels.
SeafoodSource will be on hand as the ASC announces the timeline for certifying against the standards as well as the timeline for launching the ASC eco-label.
