The Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) program that certifies farmed seafood has surpassed 1 million metric tons (MT) from certified processing plants at the end of October, up from 763,000 MT at the end of October 2011.
There were 204 BAP-certified plants handling the 1.004 million metric tons of “one-star” product at the end of October, up from 158 plants at the end of October 2011.
Additionally, the annual quantity of product originating from BAP-certified farms has more than doubled over the past year. At the end of October 2012, there were 251 BAP-certified farms handling 445,000 metric tons of product, up from 209 BAP-certified farms handling 209,000 metric tons of product at the end of October 2011.
“We’re having a wonderful year,” said Wally Stevens, executive director of the Global Aquaculture Alliance at the organization’s GOAL 2012 conference in Bangkok, which wrapped up on 2 November. “The number of facilities is up over 500 — that’s a 34 percent increase in certified facilities in the BAP program.”
The majority of the growth within the BAP program is attributed to salmon and pangasius. Since Mainstream Canada’s Brent Island salmon farm in British Columbia became the first salmon farm to earn BAP certification in December 2011, 41 salmon farms and eight salmon-processing plants have achieved BAP certification, handling 140,800 and 114,400 MT of product, respectively.
There were eight pangasius farms handling 29,700 MT of product at the end of October, compared to two farms handling 8,500 MT of product a year ago. BAP tilapia production has also experienced growth. At the end of October 33 tilapia farms and 53 tilapia-processing plants had achieved BAP certification, handling 110,700 and 203,400 MT of product, respectively. That’s up 25 percent and 24 percent, respectively, from a year ago.
