Marine Harvest Canada has become the first company to complete the pilot segment of the Best Aquaculture Practices’ (BAP) new group farm program, according to the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA).
Passing the pilot has resulted in BAP certification for 11 of Marine Harvest Canada’s salmon farm sites located along the coastline of British Columbia. By taking the BAP Group farm approach, companies are able to reduce the number of site audits – instead of every site getting audited, a subset of the farms are put under such inspection. All sites together then receive a BAP certificate if found up to standard.
Qualification for the group farm program mandates that the applicant “implement strict and consistent internal controls across all of its operations, including a procedure to remove non-compliant sites,” said GAA. This commitment acts as a catalyst for continuous improvement, noted the alliance.
“In order to meet the group certification, BAP and our third-party auditors need to be confident that Marine Harvest farms are consistently operating at a level that exceeds standard requirements,” said Marine Harvest Canada Certification Manager Katherine Dolmage in a prepared statement. “It’s a huge honor to be selected to undertake this pilot, as it shows that BAP has recognized the level of performance and commitment to the standards at all Marine Harvest farm sites.”
“A key element to ensuring the integrity and auditability of new programs such as this is the ability to ‘pilot’ test them in the field,” said BAP VP Lisa Goche. “BAP is grateful to Marine Harvest Canada, which graciously volunteered to participate in a group pilot against the BAP salmon farm standards. Its cooperation has really helped us to fine tune and improve the program.
SAI Global is the certification body that is assisting BAP in its group farm program, and has proven “invaluable” in the process, noted to Goche.
