February 13, 2016
800 Vietnam shrimp farms aim for BAP certification
Around 800 shrimp farms in Vietnam are being targeted to enroll in a programme that would enable them to eventually earn a Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certification.
Under a memorandum of understanding inked between the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA), on the one hand, and the National Fish & Seafood and Minh Phu Seafood Corp., on the other, some 800 shrimpfarms being operated by Minh Phu would be enrolled in GAA''s improvement programme called iBAP, with funding from NFS.
The farms would have 12 months to get BAP certification upon enrollment in the programme.
The NFS promised to market the shrimp from the farms that earn and retain BAP certification, while the GAA has committed to provide the education and support necessary for NFS and Minh Phu to manage the project.
Jeff Sedacca, president of NFS'' shrimp division, said, "We are delighted to announce our partnership with the GAA and Minh Phu on such a forward-thinking, innovative project to certify hundreds of small-scale shrimp farmers while preserving the sensitive, and extremely vulnerable, mangrove environment".
For his part, Peter Redmond, BAP''s vice president for market development said, "This is a very important milestone for the BAP programme. We have long said that the traditional model of certifying a single farm is not practical for the future. This (project)...demonstrates our commitment to making third-party certification available to the majority of aquaculture constituents. We applaud the work and vision of National Fish and Minh Phu and are honored to be the certification program of choice for this large and very important project. We view this as a very strong sign of real change on the water."
The GAA launched the iBAP programme in early 2014, and out of the 82 facilities worldwide that have enrolled in iBAP, only 10 are BAP-certified.