The Global Aquaculture Alliance’s Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certification program is having a watershed moment.
According to the latest tally through the end of November, the BAP program has managed to certify 1,028 processing plants, farms, hatcheries and feed mills during its 12 year tenure thus far; around this time last year, the program had certified 701 facilities. What’s more, a further 178 facilities have turned in applications and are currently undergoing the BAP certification process.
“We’re proud of this BAP milestone, which is really an achievement of producers and marketplace endorsers,” said GAA President George Chamberlain in a news release. “The impact of this program goes far beyond the numbers themselves — it has led to industry-wide changes in attitudes and policies that are improving practices on a broad scale.”
“For us, BAP has always been more than a standard. It is a solution,” added GAA Executive Director Wally Stevens. “It is all-encompassing assurance for aquaculture stakeholders that the issues associated with the environment, workers, animals and food safety are being responsibly managed at aquaculture facilities worldwide.”
An increase (50 percent) in the number of certified operations has also boosted annual output from BAP-certified processing plants, which produced 1.86 million metric tons at the end of November – up 30 percent over 2014 year-end figures.
Other key happenings for GAA and BAP posted through the end of November include:
- Since the end of 2014, the number of BAP-certified farms has increased 56 percent, to 578 farms.
- The bulk of the growth in the number of BAP-certified farms came from shrimp and from salmon and trout. The number of BAP-certified salmon and trout farms doubled, to 268 farms at the end of November 2015. The number of BAP-certified shrimp farms increased 34 percent, to 213 farms at the end of November 2015.
- The number of BAP-certified farms reached 315 at the end of November 2015. That’s a 16 percent increase from the end of 2014.
- The number of BAP-certified hatcheries and feed mills totaled 81 and 54, respectively, at the end of November 201, compared to 32 hatcheries and 27 feed mills at the end of 2014.
- The annual output from BAP-certified processing plants totaled 1.86 million metric tons, with shrimp representing 627,394 metric tons, salmon and trout representing 96,955 metric tons, tilapia representing 248,141 metric tons and pangasius representing 96,955 metric tons.
