New South Wales, Australia-based Murray Cod achieved a 3-star Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certification for its farm, feed, and processing facilities.
BAP certification is a comphrensive process which requires third-party audits of a company’s entire production chain, from hatchery, to farm, to feed mill, to processing plant. It requires that seafood production meet strict requirements in terms of environmental responsibility, social accountabiliy, food safety, and animal health and welfare.
The company, which farms Murray cod, a type of freshwater perch (Maccullochella peelii), said that the certification will allow it to respond to customer demand for certified sustainable seafood in growing markets, including Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
As CEO Ross Anderson previously told SeafoodSource, Murray cod is a predatory freshwater fish that is unique to Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin river system. Because fishing wild Murray cod is banned thanks to overfishing stemming back to the 19th century, the company farms the fish in earthen ponds, supplying restaurants with what Anderson calls “the rarest fine-dining fish in the world."
The company also has also developed a Murray Cod Caviar garnish in an effort to maximize use of its fish while still addressing the needs of the sustainability-focused fine-dining market it has developed for its product.
Anderson called the recent certification “a testament to our dedication to responsible aquaculture and opens doors to new markets that value responsible farmed seafood production."
