BAP Program Hits Milestone With 800th Certified Facility

The Global Aquaculture Alliance’s Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) third-party certification program has reached a milestone, surpassing the 800-facility mark.

Currently, more than 800 aquaculture facilities worldwide — processing plants, farms, hatcheries and feed mills — are BAP certified. That’s up from 701 BAP-certified facilities as of Dec. 31, 2014, and 648 BAP-certified facilities as of Dec. 31, 2013.

It’s been another year of robust growth for the BAP program. Currently, the annual output from BAP-certified processing plants exceeds 1.6 million metric tons, up from just over 1.4 million metric tons as of Dec. 31, 2014.

The number of companies offering two-star, three-star and four-star BAP product is also on the rise. Four-star BAP status denotes that the processing plants, farms, hatcheries and feed mills from which a group sources are BAP certified. It’s the highest such achievement in the BAP program.

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 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. BAP certification is based on independent audits that evaluate compliance with the BAP standards developed by the Global Aquaculture Alliance. For more information on BAP, visit http://bap.gaalliance.org/.