These guidelines prepare and enable aquaculture societies to seek group certification from independent third party certification programmes. The guidelines are independent of commodity and certification standards. They were developed as part of a collaborative MPEDA/NaCSA/NACA project on the certification of aquaculture societies. Draft guidelines developed by the project partners were discussed at the inception meeting on aquacutlure society certifiction held at Kakinada during 1-2 September 2009.

This presentation builds on countries’ recent experiences to review the role of aquaculture in countries’ socio-economic growth and development, and discusses how institutional arrangements can lead to aquaculture’s enhanced net benefits to society. Aquaculture growth has recently been slowing down, and the sector is facing various resource, environmental, economic, knowledge and institutional constraints. Population growth, economic expansion and increasing preference for healthy food are expected to sustain the demand for aquaculture products.

The aquaculture industry globally is characterised by an endemic cyclicity that goes beyond good or bad management and affects good companies and bad. This presentation aims to address the boom and bust phenomenon in the industry by examining some of the solutions that can help smooth out its cyclicity. The role of information gathering, management and analysis for decision making is discussed. The presentation includes a brief review of the global market for aquaculture products.

Certification schemes for both wild and farmed products are gaining market share in many developed country markets. In a not too distant future, aquaculture’s share of total supply for human consumption will rise to somewhere between 60 and 70 percent. This will have a profound impact on the sector’s ability to shape world markets but it will also challenge the sector’s ability to respond successfully to evolving consumer needs.

As standards, certification schemes and claims proliferate, their value is being questioned. Producers and producing countries in particular question whether these private standards and certification schemes duplicate or complement government work, especially in relation to food safety and animal health. The expert panel will review current practices and future trends in market-based quality standards and certification schemes in aquaculture, including international initiatives to promote transparent market standards for improved safety, quality and sustainability in aquaculture. 

There is unprecedented growth in the demand for organic food and new areas of organic food production, such as fish, are proving increasingly popular. Today, several specific and relatively precise standards of organic aquaculture production (hatchery, feed, grow-out) and processing exist which aim at achieving optimal agro-ecosystems which are socially, ecologically and economically sustainable. Around 80 different organic aquaculture standards exist, both public as well as private.

Between 70 and 80 percent of Asian farmers are estimated to be small-scale farmers. It is clear that increasing globalisation and the resultant trade liberalisation of aquaculture products is leading towards the marginalisation and exclusion of individual small-scale producers. There is a need for changing the management of both large- and small-scale producers to remain competitive. Recent experiences show that establishment of farmer societies are effective.

The Phuket Consensus is a declaration on aquaculture development endorsed by participants of the Global Conference on Aquaculture 2010, held in Phuket, Thailand, 22-25 September. The consensus builds on the Bangkok Declaration, which was formulated at the International Conference on Aquaculture in the Third Millennium, held in Bangkok, 20-25 February 2000. The consensus and declaration provide strategic guidance on sustainable development of aquaculture considering social, environmental, technical and economic issues.

In this issue:

Relative efficacies of lobsters Panulirus ornatus and P. homarus cultured using pellet feeds and trash fish, Vietnam. Tilapia in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Marketing low-value cultured fish in Bangladesh: An evaluation of value chain. Current practices of rice field eel Monopterus albus culture in Vietnam. Self-help group makes fisherwomen self-relian: A story of success. Small indigenous freshwater fish species of India: Significance, conservation and utilisation. 

This report is the outcome of a study conducted by NACA to assess the shrimp price trends in Vietnam, Indonesia and Bangladesh from January 2008 to June 2009, updating the previous study Evaluation of the impact of the Indian Ocean Tsunami and US Anti-Dumping Duties on the Shrimp Farming Sector of South and South-East Asia, 2006. The previous study highlighted the need for continuous collection of price data at all levels in the supply chain.