The Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) on Monday announced it carried out an unannounced audit at the Narong Seafood shrimp processing plan in Samutsakorn, Thailand. As a result, GAA is recommending that the plant maintain its Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certification.
After more than 30 hours at the plant, two auditors found no evidence of the severe allegations cited in a 6 June report by Warehouse Workers United and the International Labor Rights Forum.
Two auditors inspected the plant between 14 June to 17 June. The auditors interviewed dozens of employees to attain first-hand knowledge of the working conditions, checked the company’s records back to January 2012 and gathered more than 300 pages of objective evidence.
The auditors did find a number of non-conformities in the plant. However, these constituted isolated instances rather than systematic problems. The BAP program requires that all certified facilities correct any deficiencies and provide objective evidence verifying this in order to maintain BAP certification. Narong Seafood’s BAP certification is valid through October 2013 providing that the deficiencies are corrected within the required time frame.
