Asian-Pacific Aquaculture 2024

April 11, 2024 - The Asian Pacific Aquaculture 2024 (APA2024) international annual event with 3 days conference and 3 days exhibitions together which will be held at the Grand City Hall Convention and Exhibition Centre in Surabaya, Indonesia from July 2-5, 2024.

APA2024 will offer nearly 100 sessions that will cover all aspects of aquaculture trends, best practices and latest technology in aquaculture advancements. The organisers of the event encourages all the attendees to submit their abstracts and present their presentations at the conference before the deadline on April 30, 2024.

The plenary session on the first day of event on Wednesday July 3, APA say that they are honoured to welcome Professor Dr Rokhmin Dahuri, the President of Indonesia Aquaculture Society and the former Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries of the Republic of Indonesia (2001-2004). He has been a lecturer and professor at the Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences, IPB University since 1986 to the present. Additionally, he has served as an advisor to 10 Governors of Indonesian Provinces since 2010 and continues to do so for marine and fisheries economic development. From 2010 to 2014 and from 2020 until now, he has been an advisor to the Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries. He has authored numerous books and papers in the fields of Coastal and Ocean Management, Aquaculture, Science and Technology, Education and Economic Development, published in both Indonesian and international journals.

Following that Dr JK Jena, Deputy Director General (Fisheries Science) at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), India since January 2016 and steering the eight fisheries science institutes of the ICAR. Dr JK Jena has 32 years of research experience in different fields of freshwater aquaculture and conservation genetics. He has also provided leadership to 19 animal science institutes as Deputy Director General (Animal Science), ICAR for over three and a half years. Before this, he served as the Director of the ICAR-National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources (NBFGR), Lucknow, India for over 5 years. Dr Jena has published 215 research papers in national and international journals of repute, besides several books and other publications. Dr Jena also occupies the Chair of the Governing Council of the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA), Bangkok, Thailand. 

Dr JK Jena will present 'Meeting the Aspirations of Blue Transformation: R&D as Key Driver' for his plenary presentation.

To date, more than 200 booths slots or 90 percent of the booth have been sold and two hundreds of abstracts have already been submitted. Registration for the conference remains open with early bird categories still available.

Blue Genetics has also been announced as the Silver Sponsor for APA24. Blue Genetics is an international company specialising in genetic selection for the Whiteleg Shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei), providing high quality Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) broodstock to the international markets.

Blue Genetics is a subsidiary of Groupe Grimaud, one of the world leaders in multi-species animal genetic selection, vaccines and innovative proteins. Based in Western France, Groupe Grimaud was founded in 1966 and is active in more than 100 countries. 

The Blue Genetics brand was created in 2013 when Grupo Mahr of Mexico and Groupe Grimaud decided to join forces. In 2022 Blue Genetics merged with Sea Products Development, a well-established shrimp breeding company based in Texas, USA. This merger led to a consolidated company that through obvious synergies is better placed to meet the challenges of the shrimp industry. The name of the US company is now being changed into Blue Genetics USA.

This merger guarantees that Blue Genetics products have the same genetics and quality, whether they come from Mexico, the USA, or our partner companies in India and Thailand.

For more information, visit HERE.

The Aquaculturists

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ASC seeks feedback to finalise content of its new Farm Standard

April 10, 2024 - Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) is launching the last round of stakeholder consultation to help finalise the content of its new Farm Standard. Stakeholders are encouraged to take part before the consultation closes on Monday May 20.

The new Farm Standard will align all of ASC's species-specific standards into a single global, robust standard - bringing greater consistency to the ASC programme and supporting the highest assurance throughout the supply chain.

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it also addresses all relevant environmental and human rights impacts of aquaculture, regardless of production system or location of the farm.

It includes enhancements to existing requirements along with new requirements in key areas to address environmental and social impacts of aquaculture. The Standard also enables ASC to act on market demand for new species and add new production systems to the programme more efficiently.

Michiel Fransen, ASC Director of Standards and Science, said, "We encourage all stakeholders to actively participate in this last round of consultation. Whether you're a producer, a retailer, an academic, an NGO or anyone else who is interested in what we are doing, we want to hear from you! This will help make sure that the ASC Farm Standard reflects your expectations, expertise and experiences."

Stakeholder inclusion and participation is key to ensure that ASC continues to set the standard for seafood. To inform future direction more broadly, stakeholders will also be able to give their feedback in the consultation on where they believe ASC is doing well and where improvements can be made.

What's in the new ASC Farm Standard?

The content of the ASC Farm Standard is divided across four Principles - now including a newly-created fourth principle that covers Fish Health and Welfare as part of ASC's new approach to address key areas of market concern.

Principle 1 - Farm Management 

This principle covers legal and effective business operations. New criteria include management systems and business ethics requirements, and existing criteria around traceability and disclosure requirements will be improved. Overall, the principle will help to reinforce domestic laws and regulations to maintain a culture that prevents corruption and bribery, tackling food fraud and leading to improved traceability and product integrity throughout the supply chain.

Principle 2 - Environmental Responsibility

This principle focuses on farming practices to reduce harm to biodiversity and the ecosystem surrounding the farm. New criteria include water quality, energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with improvements to existing feed, hatcheries and intermediate sites, environmental risk and benthic impact requirements. The inclusion in the Standard of key areas of concern for consumers and NGOs, such as GHG emissions and impacts from early stages of the life cycle, will help to mitigate potential supply chain risks for retailers. The principle will also support greater consistency of data reporting.

Principle 3 - Social Responsibility

The social requirements in Principle 3 cover the broadest range of human rights issues of any aquaculture certification programme.

New criteria include requirements to ensure farm employees' awareness of human rights, and improvements to existing forced and child labour, health and safety, discrimination and grievance mechanism requirements. To support the implementation of the Farm Standard, ASC is working on a wider project on worker voice and community engagement. Together, these developments will support improved working conditions - leading to a more engaged and effective workforce, with reduced absences and better staff retention on-farm.

Principle 4 - Fish Health and Welfare

This principle includes new criteria on handling, stunning and slaughter requirements and new eyestalk ablation restrictions for shrimp producers. Antibiotic usage restrictions for all producers will help drive ASC's long-term approach to reducing antibiotic use in line with WHO's 'One Health' recommended approach for reducing dependence on antibiotics.

Maria Filipa Castanheira, ASC Standards Coordinator for Fish Welfare, said, "We believe that these focused, clear requirements on animal health and welfare will support producers to transparently demonstrate their responsible practices to their supply chain. The welfare indicators, handling and slaughter requirements in particular will contribute to lower animal stress levels and better welfare, which will ultimately contribute to better product quality, higher survival rates and reduced expenditure on disease prevention."

Next steps

This final round of consultation will be used to elevate an appropriate transition framework for farms, which will be at least 24 months. ASC will confirm the transition period for farms in September 2025. Following approval, the new Farm Standard will become operational in early 2025.

Chris Ninnes, ASC CEO, said, "This new Standard will draw together years of experience, research and input from a range of ASC stakeholders spanning many backgrounds. It is a milestone development not only for ASC certification, but also for responsibly produced farmed seafood worldwide. We are proud to be setting the standard for seafood."

For more information, visit HERE.

The Aquaculturists

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GSA names Mike Kocsis as its new CEO

April 10, 2024 - The Global Seafood Alliance (GSA) has announced the appointment of Mike Kocsis as its new Chief Executive Officer.

Mike Kocsis

Kocsis, who has extensive seafood industry experience spanning two decades, is well positioned to lead GSA into its next chapter. He joined the organisation in April 2022 as Chief Systems Officer to oversee certification operations and information technology and was most recently promoted to Chief Strategy Officer in August 2023.

Kocsis joined the seafood industry after completing studies in supply chain management and international business. He holds a bachelor of science degree in logistics and international business from Penn State University and an MBA from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business.

Kocsis commented, "I'm excited to continue advancing responsible seafood practices globally with our partners. GSA is proud to engage with many of the world's leading aquaculture and wild-caught seafood producers, retailers, foodservice operators, and NGO's, and I look forward to closer collaboration as we advance our shared vision. This work isn't possible without the incredible team at GSA. Their commitment to our mission and dedication to continuous improvement inspires me daily. It's an honour to serve this team and lead GSA into the future."

Kocsis' career includes leadership roles at leading seafood brands like High Liner Foods, King & Prince Seafood and Gorton's Seafood. In 2016, while serving as VP of aquaculture procurement at High Liner Foods, he was recognised on intraFish's 40 under 40 list.

Longtime GSA leader Wally Stevens will assist in Kocsis' transition into the CEO role and remain a member of the GSA board of directors and GSA executive committee. Stevens has been involved with the Global Seafood Alliance for 17 years, joining the Global Aquaculture Alliance as executive director in 2007.

For more information, visit HERE.

The Aquaculturists

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