14 May 2025
Metro Food Sourcing champions responsible farming with the GGN label at Seafood Expo Global industry panel
A panel event at Seafood Expo Global 2025 spotlighted the growing global adoption of responsible aquaculture practices and their communication to consumers with the GGN label.
Metro Food Sourcing champions responsible farming with the GGN label at Seafood Expo Global industry panel
COLOGNE/BARCELONA, 14 May 2025 — At the recent Seafood Expo Global in Barcelona, a Metro Food Sourcing Concarneau Trading Office representative reaffirmed their commitment to responsible sourcing by endorsing the use of the GGN label. Metro Food Sourcing highlighted the value of the robust international certification behind the GGN label, which supports transparent and trustworthy product verification across the supply chain – all the way back to the farm.
“We highly value the independent certification that is represented by the GGN label. It allows us to confidently support responsible sourcing and offer our customers transparency they can trust,” said József Bárdos, Quality & Sustainable Development Manager at the Metro Food Sourcing Concarneau Trading Office.
Since adopting the GGN label across its product range, Metro Food Sourcing has experienced a remarkable sales increase of 40% for seabass and seabream, demonstrating strong customer demand for certified, labeled and transparent products. During the panel, Bárdos announced that Metro Food Sourcing Concarneau Trading Office is currently applying for GLOBALG.A.P. Chain of Custody (CoC) certification in Italy, supporting the segregation and identification of products originating from GLOBALG.A.P. certified production processes and ensuring this certified status is maintained and safeguarded at every stage of the supply chain.
This initiative underlines Metro’s interest in communicating to their customers at the fresh fish counters with the GGN label. Today, Metro Food Sourcing has already implemented the GGN label in 19 countries, including Germany, Spain, and Poland. Building on this success, Jószef Bárdos also mentioned plans to introduce rainbow trout as a new product into their assortment, complementing the existing portfolio.
Responsible farming and transparency at every stage of the supply chain with the GGN label
During the panel event, Remko Oosterveld, Business Development Manager Aquaculture at GLOBALG.A.P., highlighted the role of the GGN label in promoting responsibility and transparency within aquaculture supply chains. According to Oosterveld, the GLOBALG.A.P. Compound Feed Manufacturing (CFM) standard, which is an integral part of the GGN label, is particularly important.
“The GGN label for aquaculture ensures that certified companies meet a series of strict requirements to protect the environment. When it comes to feed for example, which is among other aspects also covered by the GGN label, producers undertake not to use any products from Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fisheries or any species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species in feed production. Also, no raw materials may be used that originate from areas where forests have previously been illegally cleared or which are nature reserves, which is in line with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) initiative,” explained Remko Oosterveld.
The GLOBALG.A.P. and GGN label expert highlighted that products with the GGN label can be found in 40 countries across the world, with almost three million metric tons of farmed aquatic species produced under GLOBALG.A.P. certified production processes annually – an extensive offer to the aquaculture market. “We believe the GGN label continues to set industry benchmarks by enabling supply chain transparency from farm to table, fostering responsible aquaculture, consumer confidence, and driving market growth for products from certified production processes,” concluded Remko Oosterveld.
The GLOBALG.A.P. Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA) standard for aquaculture is recognized by both the Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative (GSSI) for version 5.4-1-GFS and the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) for version 6 GFS, enabling trusted and widely accepted certification with GLOBALG.A.P. and the GGN label.
About GLOBALG.A.P.
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. Now, over twenty-five years later, more than 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. Press contact: Leonie Fischer – pressoffice@globalgap.org
