Stapimex (Soc Trang Seafood Joint Stock Company), one of Vietnam’s largest shrimp producers, earned BAP certification for six of its shrimp farm sites located in Vietnam’s Soc Trang province.  The BAP certification was sponsored by USA-based National Fish and Seafood.

Jeff Sedacca, president of National Fish and Seafood’s shrimp division, said, “This historic milestone will make it possible for the thousands of smallholder shrimp farms around the world to meet the environmental and social standards of the BAP program and achieve certification gaining access to international markets.  This project has been the result of a year-and-a-half collaboration between Stapimex, National Fish and Seafood and GAA.  National Fish & Seafood is grateful for the hard work of everyone involved in this project.”

Peter Redmond, BAP’s VP of market development, said, “There are literally hundreds of thousands of farms around the world, and not having this type of program severely limits the ability for any certification program to be effective beyond the ‘top’ farms.”

For group farms, a subset of the total number of sites is audited; the ability to qualify for group requires an applicant to implement strict and consistent internal controls across all of its operations.

The BAP group farm program is separate from an integrated operating module (IOM), in which groups of medium to small-sized farms are organized under the sponsorship of a processor, farmer cooperative or association, or other legally recognized entity.

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.