Collaboration is key in aquaculture

When GlobalGAP, the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) and Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in April 2013, one of the areas the groups agreed to collaborate on was developing common requirements related to feed.
 
At a conference during the Seafood Expo Global on Wednesday, the three organizations provided an update on how the responsible feed standard is moving forward.
 
The MoU has established a new commitment in 2014: the initiation of a working group on responsible standards for feed manufacturers in aquaculture and livestock.
 
“The original thinking behind the feed dialogue was originally with the need for ASC to harmonize the requirements it has across the eight standards for the different species. So although the standards all point to feed as being a very important issue, the treatment of feed and some of the requirements within them vary,” said Chris Ninnes, CEO of the ASC. “They vary in and around the fish component, but also some of the other ingredients that were mentioned in some standards but not in others.
 
“Clearly to help the feed industry, if nothing else, have some consistency in terms within the ASC standards would make a lot of sense. But it became apparent that if we could develop something around feed that was not necessarily proprietary to ASC that could also provide a framework for other certification platforms then we would deepen that sort of standardization process.”
 
Added Kristain Moeller, GlobalGAP managing director: “In the end you want to know exactly what to do to comply with the different requirements of standards and if you have more than two standards that you will address, you want to really know you have something you don’t duplicate.”
 
In addition, GlobalGAP announced Open Blue, a cobia producer that farms off the coast of Panama is nearing GlobalGAP aquaculture certification.
 
The advantages of Open Blue’s open-ocean farming system, according to Heiddis Olafsdottir of Open Blue Global Services in Canada, are effective waste disposal, low nutrient footprint, efficient feed use, low pathogen use and minimal antibiotic use and minimal persistent organic pollutants.

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