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Participants of the first Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) summit to take place in Vietnam engaged with ASC certified farmers of both shrimp and pangasius. The summit brought seafood buyers together from across the globe to visit commercial entities in Vietnam, one of the leading aquaculture producing countries in the world.
The series of interactive ASC summit activities included tours of certified seafood farms, processing facilities and feed mills all contributing to the responsible care and supply of ASC certified and labelled seafood to markets across the globe.
Mr Sangjin Lee, fish buyer and ESG manager at Lottemart (Korea) stated in a press release: “Visiting various aquaculture farms abroad was a great experience and witnessing how advanced the production facilities are was especially impressive. The knowledge gained throughout the activities carried out will inform our future decisions in purchasing a variety of seafood, including ASC certified shrimp.”
ASC certification profile of Vietnam
Vietnamese seafood exports play a significant role worldwide, notably regarding the availability of ASC labelled responsibly farmed shrimp and pangasius. There are currently in Vietnam:
- Over 300 ASC certified shrimp farm sites.
- Over 50 ASC certified pangasius farm sites.
- Over 73,000 metric tonnes of ASC certified shrimp produced annually,
- Almost 85,000 metric tonnes of ASC certified pangasius produced annually.
“The ASC Summit series continues to offer an educational experience that no other organisation is providing at this level for responsibly farmed seafood,” commented Marcos Moya, ASC’s global producer outreach lead. He carried on by saying: “We are connecting major retailers directly to the farmers whose seafood reaches the plates of consumers, and that is key to increasing positive impacts around environmental sustainability and social responsibility in aquaculture. Communicating the value behind ASC’s label is critical to ensuring responsibly farmed seafood comes with strong assurance, verification, and traceability from farm to store shelf.”
ASC’s summit in Vietnam marked the final destination of the series for 2023, which previously brought seafood buyers from around the globe to visit shrimp farms in Ecuador (June 2023) and seabass and seabream farms in Turkey (September 2023).
The immersive hands-on experience in Vietnam was the longest summit to-date, with the most site visits, showcasing how certified farmers are using the ASC label to transparently demonstrate their sustainability performances, values and commitment to responsible seafood farming across sectors.
ASC will soon announce a new round of ASC summit locations and dates for 2024, further expanding its footprint to more industry stakeholders in order to share the benefits of responsible seafood farming.
