Marine ingredients certification at the production factory: MarinTrust launches public consultation

Today, MarinTrust, the leading programme dedicated to marine ingredient production factories, allowing them to gain recognition for their sourcing and production of marine ingredients globally, is launching an open public consultation on the revision of its Factory Standard.

Image credit: Enrico Strocchi on flickr
(CC BY-SA 2.0)

The 60-day public consultation for Version 3 of the MarinTrust Factory Standard is running from 4th May to 3rd July 2023. Feedback will be taken into account before the launch of Version 3 of the factory Standard, due to take place in October 2023.

This revision aims to increase accessibility for responsibly sourced and produced marine ingredients and encourage the use of by-products. It will lay the foundations towards fully traceable marine ingredients and progress the Standard’s focus on environmental and social impacts, both at the factory and on the vessels supplying whole fish.

Libby Woodhatch, Executive Chair of MarinTrust, says, “Each year, around six million tonnes of marine ingredients, mostly fishmeal and fish oil, are produced globally, half of which are, to date, certified against the MarinTrust Standard. Our ambition is that marine ingredients are recognised as the best and most important source of animal and human nutrition. We want the marine ingredients value chain to be able to rely on standardised data both on environmental and social performance and to progress the use of 100 percent of fish. In order to get there, we need to strengthen the Standard’s risk assessment criteria and management controls for both whole fish and by-products. I invite everyone to share their views so we continue to deliver a high level of assurance.”

This consultation comes towards the end of a rigorous development process, which started back in 2018, including pilot assessments across the world and feedback from key marine ingredient stakeholders to enhance the consistency and efficiency of audits.

“From Peru to Chile to Thailand to South Africa to Iceland, marine ingredient producers underwent two-day pilots assessments to put the draft Version 3 through its paces. Meanwhile, companies in Denmark, Peru and Chile carried out self-assessments to home in on any parts of the standard which needed clarifying and polishing,” adds Francisco Aldon, CEO of MarinTrust.

 The whole process has been closely overseen by MarinTrust’s multi-stakeholder Governing Body Committee.

This consultation is an important final step to engage the wider community, ensuring that Version 3 will meet expectations of all those that will use it.

For more information about MarinTrust visit the website, HERE.

The Aquaculturists

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IFFO looks into the protein challenge at its Members’ Meeting

Complementarity was a key theme of presentations at the IFFO Members’ Meeting held in Madrid from May 2 to 3, 2023, attended by 220 Members from 29 countries. 

IFFO’s Director General, Petter Martin Johannessen stated, “Marine ingredients are central to every discussion on feed because of a combination of factors, among which: growing nutritional needs, demands for improving the food production system’s carbon footprint; and constant progress on assuring traceability and responsible practices. Looking at each of these factors, marine ingredients check all the boxes: a stable global volume of supply, an unmatched nutritional package, a very low carbon profile compared to other feed ingredients and the highest certification credentials, at 50 percent of global production.”

The protein challenge is underpinned by a deficit in feed ingredients of 30-40 million tons to meet FAO’s goal of fed aquaculture production in 2030. 

Diversity is the way forward, with several implications: by-products utilisation must be encouraged and the use of fishmeal and fish oil combined with that of additional feed ingredients. 

Multiple parameters have to be taken into account so as to meet the nutritional needs of fish produced by the aquaculture sector while minimising environmental impacts. A panel discussion on novel ingredients addressed the need for a step by step approach to achieve production to scale up and also addressed ideas around collaboration between feed ingredients producers. 

Complementarity doesn’t apply only to ingredients profiles but also to the way ingredients should be assessed: it is not the case of using isolated metrics such as feed conversion ratios but to consider a wide range of parameters which complement each other in order to provide a holistic view. 

Finally, the environmental and the social approaches complement each other nicely when it comes to setting standards for the industry and driving positive changes. Environmental concerns first pushed the responsible sourcing agenda but public reporting documenting commitments to ESG policies and covering the supply chain are now demanded. 

Summaries of discussion are now available here. 

The Aquaculturists

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The Global Shrimp Forum is back. It’s even bigger, better and tickets are selling out fast

After a hugely successful debut, the Global Shrimp Forum is back and this year it is even bigger and better. Once again it will take place in Utrecht, the Netherlands, from 5th to 7th September 2023. The event is already proving enormously popular, with 80 percent of tickets already sold. A limited number of places are still available here.

More than 100 speakers and panelists have been confirmed and this year, to set the scene, the Forum will open with a leadership panel, including President of Cargill Aqua Nutrition, Helene Ziv-Douki, General Manager of Omarsa, Sandro Coglitore and Chairman of Devi Fisheries, Rajagopal Choudary Chitturi.

There’s a star line-up for the breakout sessions featuring industry leaders such as, General Manager of Skretting Ecuador, Carlos Miranda, CEO of Marinasol, Roberto Ferron, Shrimp Buyer for Maruha Nichiro, Hidetami Haruta, and Managing Director of MU Seafood, Shyamal Das. A full schedule, including all confirmed speakers and panelists, can be found here.

The subjects for this year’s sessions will be:

• Trade Statistics: The Latest Import and Export Trends
• Feed Manufacturing and Feed Ingredients
• Production: Strategies to Sustain Shrimp Production in Challenging Times
• Finance and Investment: CEO Visions and Investor Reflections
• Animal Welfare and Decarbonisation
• Technology and Innovation
• Retail and Consumption

This year the conference organisers, the Global Shrimp Forum Foundation (GSFF) are also funding a study to inspire discussion about how to promote global shrimp consumption. The preliminary results of the research will be presented and debated as part of the meeting. During an invite-only lunch, the world’s top producers will also discuss the status of establishing a global shrimp council.

With almost four months still to go, organisers already have 38 sponsors and eight exhibitors confirmed. There are a few sponsorship and exhibitor packages left. If you are interested, please contact them HERE.

The Aquaculturists

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