Marine Harvest Canada has successfully completed a pilot of the Best Aquaculture Practices’ (BAP) new group farm program, resulting in 11 of its salmon farm sites attaining BAP certification, the Global Aquaculture Alliance announced on Oct. 5.
Located along the vast British Columbia coastline, the farm sites are the first set of sites to earn BAP certification under the group farm program.
The BAP group farm approach allows for a reduced number of site audits; a subset of the total number of sites is audited. The sites receive one BAP certificate. The ability to qualify for group and to have a subset of farms audited requires an applicant to implement strict and consistent internal controls across all of its operations, including a procedure to remove non-compliant sites. The commitment required to ensure compliance under the group farm program acts as a driver for continuous improvement.
“In order to meet the group certification, BAP and our third-party auditors need to be confident that Marine Harvest farms are consistently operating at a level that exceeds standard requirements,” said Marine Harvest Canada Certification Manager Katherine Dolmage. “It’s a huge honor to be selected to undertake this pilot, as it shows that BAP has recognized the level of performance and commitment to the standards at all Marine Harvest farm sites.”
“A key element to ensuring the integrity and auditability of new programs such as this is the ability to ‘pilot’ test them in the field,” said BAP VP Lisa Goche. “BAP is grateful to Marine Harvest Canada, which graciously volunteered to participate in a group pilot against the BAP salmon farm standards. Its cooperation has really helped us to fine tune and improve the program.
“BAP also thanks SAI Global, the certification body that likewise agreed to assist us in this endeavor and whose support during both the program review process and the piloting were invaluable,” she added.
About BAP
A division of the Global Aquaculture Alliance, Best Aquaculture Practices is an international certification program based on achievable, science-based and continuously improved global performance standards for the entire aquaculture supply chain — farms, hatcheries, processing plants and feed mills — that assure healthful foods produced through environmentally and socially responsible means.
About Marine Harvest
Marine Harvest ASA is one of the largest seafood companies in the world, and the world’s largest producer of Atlantic salmon. The company employs 11,715 people, and is represented in 23 countries. In 2014 the company had a turnover of NOK 25 billion. Marine Harvest is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (OSE) and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Marine Harvest supplies healthy, delicious and sustainably farm-raised salmon and processed seafood to more than 70 markets worldwide. The company is present and trusted in all major salmon farming regions in the world. Estimated salmon production for 2015 is 430,000 tons.
Source: Marine Harvest
