The Aquaculture Stewardship Council has published its 2024 Impacts Report, detailing, among several topics, the organization’s recent focus on improving feed standards.
ASC Chief Technical Officer Alastair Dingwall said in 2024, ASC "brought feed to the forefront of responsible aquaculture."
"With the ASC Feed Standard in its first full year of adoption, we saw commitment across the value chain – from feed mills to retailers – driving meaningful change far beyond the farm gates.”
In the first year of the ASC Feed Standard program, the organization audited 24 feed mills and certified 22, according to the report.
Thai Union Feedmill CEO Peerasak Boonmechote said that the firm saw ASC Feed certification as “a key step in increasing the availability of responsible feed as part of Thai Union Group’s commitments under its global sustainability strategy.”
Skretting Global Sustainability Manager Jorge Diaz similarly said that since his company had undergone the Feed Certification process, it has “better traceability, a better understanding of what is in feed, and the risks associated with these ingredients.”
Along with a certified supply chain of 3,090 Chain of Custody holders, the Feed Standard offers a feed production emissions calculator tool, which allows mills to better understand their emission production and address inefficiencies.
More broadly, Dingwall said the recent report demonstrated the ways in which “ASC-certified sites displayed strong improvements in their performance, taking steps to reduce their impact through conserving biodiversity, addressing climate change, fostering fish health and welfare, and improving lives, livelihoods, and communities.”
The report said that 2.69 million metric tons (MT) of ASC-certified seafood had been sold globally in 2024, representing a 32 percent increase over 2023 sales.
It also documented a 12 percent spike in the number of ASC-labeled products available to retail consumers, with 2024 totals amounting to 28,426. ASC-certified seafood was sold in 121 countries globally last year, marking a 3 percent increase year over year.
Last year also saw the introduction of the ASC Farm Standard, a streamlined set of standards for 11 major species that the organization called its “boldest step yet.”
The standard addresses the ethics and sustainability of farming operations throughout all elements of an aquaculture businesses – from the management of a farm and its supply chain to the ethics of labor practices and the well-being of fish to a farm’s impact on the global environment and biodiversity.
Elsewhere, the report noted that ASC had addressed a number of issues affecting seafood workers globally in 2024, including preventing child and forced labor in 112 circumstances, improving health and safety conditions in 1,022 circumstances, and fostering fair and transparent working conditions in 591 circumstances.
