A tilapia farm in China has become the first in Asia to enroll in the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA)’s new iBAP program.
The farm, God Bless Tilapia Bao Fang Farm in Wenchang, Hainan, China, is the third worldwide to enroll in the program, which provides an improvement plan to prepare an aquaculture farm to apply for the GAA’s Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certification.
God Bless Tilapia enrolled in the iBAP program on 28 April, and is expected to complete it in nine months. The Hainan Tilapia Sustainability Alliance and Seattle, Wash. USA-based The Fishin’ Company have partnered with and sponsored the farm throughout the program.
“It has always been GAA’s mission to bring small-farm production into the certification fold. iBAP has become an integral piece of this, and the partnership of The Fishin’ Company and God Bless Tilapia will make this a reality,” said Peter Redmond, BAP VP of market development. “We look at this as a tremendous step forward and look to enroll even more facilities in the iBAP program in short order.”
God Bless Tilapia processes its fish at the Eternal Spring and Tongwei plants, and the tilapia is exported to the U.S. market.
Also enrolled in the iBAP program are Salmoprocesos S.A., a salmon processing plan in Chile, and Piscifactorías de los Andes, a trout farm in Peru and the first operation to apply for iBAP.
