The Global Aquaculture Alliance’s Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) scheme recently became the only seafood-specific certification program that Walmart has thus far approved for monitoring its suppliers’ social compliance.
In a 30 June notice to suppliers, Walmart announced it will seek the assistance of certification schemes in eliminating forced and child labor and unsafe working conditions from its supply chain. To do that, it has simplified its responsible sourcing program, implementing a third-party audit approach for monitoring the social compliance of its suppliers’ facilities.
“We appreciate the trust and confidence that Walmart has with the worker protection elements required of BAP-certified facilities, and we will continue to work diligently with our certification bodies and trained auditors to measure up to the expectations of Walmart and ourselves,” GAA Executive Director Wally Stevens said.
GAA has already been working with Walmart for more than a year to ensure that the BAP standard’s social component meets the retailer’s expectations, it said.
“Social accountability is a fundamental pillar of responsible aquaculture, and GAA is proud to be uniquely recognized within the seafood certification arena for developing such credible and comprehensive standards,” GAA President George Chamberlain said.
Earlier this year, Walmart updated its responsible sourcing policy to require all Walmart and Sam’s Club outlets in North America and Brazil to source fresh, frozen, farmed, and wild seafood supplies from fisheries that are third-party certified as sustainable, as determined by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) or which follows FAO guidelines and is recognized by the GSSI.
