A rainbow trout farming operation in Australia has become the first in the country and the Eastern Hemisphere to earn certification from the Global Aquaculture Alliance’s Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) program.
Both of Goulburn River Trout’s farms, Thornton Farm and Walnut Island Farm, located in the Great Dividing Range in northeast Victoria, received their BAP certification on 25 October. The family-owned company breeds, grows, processes and distributes trout raised off of a year-round cold water supply, and was responsible for producing 1,000 metric tons of trout for the last fiscal year. Goulburn conducts much of its export business with Asia, sending and selling fresh, frozen and smoked whole trout and trout fillets to customers.
“Goulburn River Trout is really pleased to be the first trout-farming business in our neck of the woods to gain BAP certification. We are a long-running family operation, and sustainability and intergenerational farming is central to the way we operate,” said Ed Meggitt, who, with Derrick Meggitt, helms the operations for Goulburn River Trout’s farms, in a prepared statement.
The certification of the Goulburn River Trout’s farms brings the global tally of BAP-approved rainbow trout farms up to 15 – eight in the United States, four in Colombia, one in Peru and now two in Australia, said GAA.
The Leake family started the Goulburn River Trout business in the mid-1970s, with Hugh Meggitt taking over the company in 1990, when he purchased it and commenced an expansion. Currently, both Ed and Derrick Meggitt run the day-to-day business, utilizing their 25 years of industry experience to prepare quality products.
