GLOBALG.A.P. presented important social and environmental issues at Seafood Expo Global 2023

GLOBALG.A.P. experts and stakeholders hosted an information booth and a press conference at this year’s Seafood Expo Global in Barcelona. The expo was an excellent opportunity to connect with current and potential GLOBALG.A.P. partners and share updates with seafood industry leaders regarding GLOBALG.A.P.’s portfolio of farm assurance tools and solutions. This 29th edition of the world’s leading seafood trade event was expected to be the largest expo yet, with more exhibition space, and more countries and companies represented than ever before.

Press conference focusing on updated standards and the GGN label

The GLOBALG.A.P. experts left their booth on the second day of the expo to host an in-depth discussion at a press conference titled “Addressing Responsible Sourcing of Feed Materials.” GLOBALG.A.P. was represented in the discussion by Dr. Kristian Moeller, Managing Director, and Remko Oosterveld, GGN Label KAM Aquaculture. They were joined onstage by Caroline Brunias, Sales Manager at Metro Food Sourcing, Leonidas Papaharisis, Quality Assurance/Sustainability Director at Avramar, and Óscar Vidal, Fish & Aquaculture Director at Bureau Veritas.

Updated solutions for more responsible aquaculture practices

The discussion began by highlighting the new versions of a number of GLOBALG.A.P. solutions, including the Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA) standard version 6 for aquaculture, the Compound Feed Manufacturing (CFM) standard version 3.1, and the GLOBALG.A.P. Risk Assessment on Social Practices (GRASP) add-on version 2. The new versions of these solutions resulted in a complete overhaul of the GLOBALG.A.P. aquaculture certification program and will become obligatory at the beginning of 2024.

Dr. Moeller and Mr. Oosterveld placed special emphasis on the key sustainability aspects which are currently “top-of-mind” with consumers, NGOs, and retailers alike. They stressed that implementing animal welfare practices is not only an ethical responsibility, but that it has also been shown to increase the efficiency of resource use, thereby improving sustainability. Animal welfare criteria have been completely overhauled in GLOBALG.A.P. certified value chains. These changes become obligatory in January 2024.

Improving social governance, specifically in the form of supply chain due diligence, was another key topic at the press conference. The GLOBALG.A.P. Secretariat has tightened social governance principles and criteria at feed manufacturer and farm level to support both buyers and suppliers. The GRASP add-on has undergone significant improvements and has become a powerful tool to give family businesses, buyers, and suppliers the opportunity to demonstrate their respect for human and labor rights in the aquaculture market.

The press conference panelists also discussed the topic of sourcing feed materials responsibly. The CFM standard addresses existing industry standards and initiatives, including the Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative, Marine Trust, and Fishery Improvement Projects related to marine feed ingredients. For agricultural feed ingredients, soy must be sourced in alignment with the FEFAC Soy Sourcing Guidelines, while palm oil must be sourced from RSPO-certified producers. With these new responsible sourcing criteria the GLOBALG.A.P. standard actively supports efforts to combat overfishing and land conversion problems.

Growing adoption of the GGN label adds visibility to responsibly farmed seafood

The panelists also highlighted partners around the world who have adopted the GGN label on seafood. Consumers can now find seafood products with the GGN label across Europe and North America and select retailers in Asia are now beginning to adopt the label as well. The GGN label is GLOBALG.A.P.’s business-to-consumer initiative that was launched in 2016 and has now acquired a global reach. The GGN label, which can also be found on fruits and vegetables and flowers and plants, stands for safe, sustainable, and responsible farming, and provides consumers with transparency and assurance as they shop.

During the press conference, panelist Caroline Brunias introduced the Metro Chef brand marketed by Metro Food Sourcing, which will include salmon, turbot, seabass, and seabream with the GGN label. “The GGN label helps our customers understand that we source farmed fish from responsible and trustworthy sources,” said Brunias. The seabass and seabream with the GGN label to be sold under the Metro Chef brand will be sourced from Avramar, which was represented in the discussion by Leonidas Papaharisis. Avramar is a leading aquaculture company in the Mediterranean region.

Constant adaptation to meet current challenges in the aquaculture industry

The GLOBALG.A.P. Secretariat has updated its portfolio of tools and solutions to respond proactively to the constantly evolving challenges facing the aquaculture industry. The changes to the GLOBALG.A.P. solutions as discussed in the press conference aim to improve sustainability in aquaculture and provide the meaningful assurance of responsible aquaculture that today’s conscientious consumers demand.

GLOBALG.A.P. is a brand of smart farm assurance solutions developed by FoodPLUS GmbH in Cologne, Germany, with cooperation from producers, retailers, and other stakeholders across the food industry. These solutions include a range of standards for safe, socially and environmentally responsible farming practices. The most widely used GLOBALG.A.P. standard is IFA, applicable to fruit and vegetables, aquaculture, floriculture, and more. This standard also forms the basis for the GGN label – the consumer label for certified, responsible farming and transparency.

The GLOBALG.A.P. brand began its journey as EUREPGAP in 1997. 25 years later, over 200,000 producers are under GLOBALG.A.P. certification in 132 countries. Nearly 150 team members around the world are dedicated to the mission of spreading responsible farming practices to ensure safe food for future generations.

https://www.globalgap.org/uk_en/

The GGN label is a consumer label that stands for certified, responsible farming and transparency. Found in stores on both packed and loose fruit and vegetables, farmed seafood, flowers, and plants, the label offers shoppers a quick, consistent way to recognize products that align with their values on the topics of animal welfare and social and environmental responsibility.

Accompanying the logo on product packaging is a unique 13-digit identification number that can be entered into the GGN label portal to trace the origins of the product. All products with the GGN label come from farms with production processes that are independently audited and certified to the strict criteria of GLOBALG.A.P. standards or benchmarked equivalents.

The GGN label is owned by FoodPLUS GmbH in Cologne, Germany. To find out more, visit www.ggn.org.