Control Union Peru (CUP) has become the sixth independent, third-party certification body accredited by the Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) program to audit aquaculture facilities against the BAP standards, the Global Aquaculture Alliance announced on 25 July.
Based out of the Netherlands, CUP exists as part of Peterson Control Union Group B.V., providing auditing and certification services to a number of industries including food, feed, forestry, biomass, bioenergy, and textiles.
A global-scale operator working out of more than 70 countries, CUP already has 13 auditors who are equipped to begin certifying aquaculture operations to BAP’s specifications, according to BAP Operations Manager Ali Blais.
“We are pleased to have Control Union Peru join our program as an experienced certification body. CUP operates on a global scale and are starting strong with 13 auditors already capable of auditing against all BAP standards,” Blais said in a press statement.
“To date, Control Union Peru has been a real pleasure to work with, and I look forward to establishing and maintaining a long-term partnership with them,” added Brittany Stevens, BAP certification body manager.
CUP joins five other certification bodies accredited to audit and certify aquaculture operations using BAP’s standards: Acoura, Bureau Veritas, Global Trust/SAI Global, NSF International, and SGS. Altogether, these six certification bodies have 149 auditors qualified to audit against the BAP standards, GAA said.
To be recognized by the BAP program, CUP had to achieve accreditation under ISO/IEC Guide 17065 by an International Accreditation Forum-member accreditation body and a Multilateral Recognition Arrangements signatory to another internationally recognized scheme, GAA said. Moreover, auditors who wish to certify on behalf of BAP must be trained and recognized by the BAP program and its qualified trainers by successfully completing one of the scheme’s certification courses. The next training course available takes place in Bali, Indonesia from 21 to 27 October, 2018.
The BAP program has experienced impressive growth in recent years, with 2,079 BAP-certified processing plants, farms, hatcheries, and feed mills in 34 countries and six continents confirmed through the first half of 2018 – a 197 percent increase from the 700 certified facilities present by the close of 2015. With the influx in interest and demand for BAP certification, the program has noted the need to up its qualified auditor pool.
“The need to train and recognize more auditors against the BAP certification standards has grown with the BAP program,” GAA wrote in its press release.
