Overview of current aquaculture standards and certification schemes

INTRODUCTION

At present there are at least 30 certification schemes and eight key international agreements relevant to aquaculture certification. At least another nine initiatives were also identified as addressing sustainability issues and creating a framework for differentiating sources of aquatic products in this respect. The main schemes are collated in Annexes 2–9; current standards, objectives, types of certification schemes and types of organizations promoting the scheme have been addressed as far as possible.

The schemes can be broadly split into the groups presented in Table 1.

Table 1. The main certification schemes relevant to aquaculture certification

Schemes promoted by retailers
GLOBALGAP	www.GLOBALGAP.org
Safe Quality Food	www.sqfi.com & www.fmi.org
Carrefour	www.carrefour.com
Schemes promoted by the aquaculture industry
Global Aquaculture Alliance & Aquaculture Certification Council	www.gaalliance.org www.aquaculturecertification.org
Shrimp Seal of Quality (SSoQ)	?
SIGES – SalmonChile	www.siges-salmonchile.com/proysigesingles/ www.salmonchile.cl
Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation Code of Good Practice	www.scottishsalmon.co.uk
Schemes promoted by governments
Thai Quality Shrimp	www.thaiqualityshrimp.com
Certification schemes in China	Safety agri-food certification ChinaGAP¹¹ Green food standard
Vietnam GAP and CoC programme Hong Kong Accredited Fish Farm Scheme	www.hkaffs.org/en/
Certification schemes provided by NGOs
Marine Aquarium Council	www.aquariumcouncil.org
International Standards Organization	www.iso.org
Organic certification schemes
International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements	www.ifoam.org
Naturland	www.naturland.de
Soil Association	www.soilassociation.org
BioGro New Zealand	www.bio-gro.co.nz
Bio Suisse	www.bio-suisse.ch/en/home.php
KRAV	www.krav.se
Fair trade certification schemes
Alter-Trade Japan	www.altertrade.co.jp
Ethical Trading Initiative	www.ethicaltrade.org
Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International	www.fairtrade.org.uk
Animal welfare and “free-range” schemes
Freedom food	www.rspca.org.uk
Label Rouge
Other organizations and schemes which may have relevance to aquaculture certification
WWF aquaculture dialogues and standards	www.worldwildlife.org/cci/aquaculture.cfm
Marine Stewardship Council	www.msc.org
Seafood Watch of the Monterey Bay Aquarium	www.seafoodwatch.org
Environmental Justice Foundation	www.ejfoundation.org
Federation of European Aquaculture Producers	www.FEAP.info
International Fair Trade Association	www.ifat.org
Swiss Import Promotion Programme	www.sippo.ch

¹¹ Although ChinaGAP is benchmarked against the GLOBALGAP standards and receives the support of GLOBALGAP, it also received strong support from the government and, as such, it is mentioned among the schemes promoted by governments.