16 July 2013 | 681 views
A special Workshop on Aquaculture Certification was held on 26 June in conjunction with the VIETFISH trade show, which ran from 25-27 June in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam. The workshop was organised by the ASEM Aquaculture Platform, with contributions from partners Ghent University, Wageningen University, Can Tho University and NACA. Approximately 60 people attended including farmers, researchers, certification agencies, and regional and international organisations. Facilitation was provided by Prof. Patrick Sorgeloose and Marieke Douma. The workshop was not focused on any single certification programme but instead concentrated on four key themes with an introductory presentation followed by a panel discussion, namely:
Dr Waraporn Prompoj from the Thailand Department of Fisheries gave the keynote address, sharing Thailand’s experience in establishing and implementing its national certification programme. She explained the process, transition and changes that had been made to the programme in order to conform to the FAO Technical Guidelines on Aquaculture Certification. The Thai system had evolved over time from being a GAP (good aquaculture practices) based system through to a code of conduct to the present GAP-TAS 7401 system.
Dr CV Mohan of NACA gave a presentation on the constraints that small-scale farmers face in complying with certification programmes, and the NACA regional experience in how a cluster-based approach and better management practices could help small-scale farmers to improve compliance. This was followed by a panel discussion that addressed several questions on the role of government and the private sector in supporting small-scale farmers to participate in certification programmes, both public and private, and to improve their market access.
The panel clearly indicated that small scale farming sector is too important to ignore and should be strongly considered by all certification programs and that small-scale producers should not be marginalised. The role of better management practice programmes in the region and their contribution to improving the capacity of small farmers to better comply with certification programs was acknowledged by all. It was strongly emphasised that small farmers need assistance from governments, the private sector and other service providers through extension services, better management practice programmes and the recently introduced aquaculture improvement programmes promoted by certain certification bodies, such as the Aquaculture Stewardship Council.
Members of the panel were Dr Warapron Prompoj from Thailand DOF, Nghyen Can from the Viet Nam Ministry for Agriculture and Rural Development, Ken Corpron from the Aquaculture Certification Council / Best Aquaculture Practices Programme, Jack Morales from the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership and Tim Moore from ASEAN Market Programme.
Dr Flavio Corsin provided a nice presentation on various value chain arrangements that are in place by various certification programs and also introduced the new initiatives being undertaken. The importance of emerging markets such as India, China, Indonesia and the future of seafood trade dynamics were also highlighted. Panel members included representatives from European importers and responsible sourcing agencies.
Prof. Peter Vandergeest from York University Canada provided a presentation highlighting the different auditing practices followed by public and private certification bodies. The panel discussed issues of auditing vs coaching, conflicts of interest, need for best practice in auditing procedures.
Panel members included representatives from Control Union Vietnam, Bureau Veritas Vietnam, Thai GAP and the Aquaculture Certification Council / Best Aquaculture Practices Programme.
Professor Simon Bush from Wageningen University provided a very good presentation on the concept, purpose and approach of benchmarking and informed the participants of the various on-going benchmarking initiatives, which included: The FAO conformity assessment framework likely to be approved at the next COFI Sub-committee on Aquaculture meeting scheduled for October 2013 in Russia; the Sustainable Seafood Coalition benchmarking program; the Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative and the GlobalG.A.P. benchmarking programme. The panel members strongly emphasised the need for all certification programs to get involved in benchmarking exercises so that some degree of harmonisation and equivalence can be accomplished for the benefit of primary producers and consumers.
Panel members included representatives from GIS, Sustainable Ethical Aquaculture Trade (SEAT) Project, GlobalG.A.P. and ISEAL.
The final session and was facilitated by Prof. Patrick Sorgeloose. The Chairs of the four panels summarised the discussions highlights and provided few recommendations on follow up work. Patrick concluded with strong remarks on the need to involve small farmers in the whole process and also to build awareness of consumers in importing countries of the value and benefit of aquaculture and to make attempts to change the negative image of aquaculture. A detailed report of the workshop is in preparation and will be circulated to all participants and made available on the NACA, ASEM and partner websites in due course.
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