FAO Technical Guidelines on Aquaculture Certification Lahsen Ababouch Fisheries and Aquaculture Department Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome. Italy
160.0 140.0 Million tonnes Fisheries and aquaculture production (1951-2008) 120.0 Capture (marine waters) Capture (inland waters) Total aquaculture 100.0 Million tonnes 80.0 60.0 40.0 20.0 0.0 1951 1959 1967 1975 1983 1991 1999 2007
Contribution to food-fish supply m i l l i o n to n n e s 120 100 80 60 40 20 Aquaculture Capture AQ share 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 0.0%
Evolution of global middle class in million people and % (oecd, 2010) North America 2009 338 (18%) 2020 333 (10%) 2030 322 (7%) Europe 664 (36%) 703 (22%) 680 (14%) Central and South America 181 (10%) 251 (8%) 313 (6%) Asia and Pacific 525 (28%) 740 (54%) 3228 (66%) Sub Saharian Africa 32 (2%) 57 (2%) 107 (2%) Middle east and North Africa 105 (6%) 165 (5%) 234 (5%) Total World 1845 (100%) 3249 (100%) 4484 (100%)
Middle class spending worldwide in million of 2005 PPP $ and % (oecd, 2010) North America 2009 5602 (26%) 2020 5863 (17%) 2030 5837 (10%) Europe 8138 (38%) 10301 (29%) 11337 (20%) Central and South America 1534 (7%) 2315 (7%) 3117 (6%) Asia and Pacific 4952 (23%) 14798 (42%) 32596 (59%) Sub Saharian Africa 256 (1%) 448 (1%) 827 (1%) Middle east and North Africa 796 (4%) 1321 (4%) 1966 (4%) Total World 21278 (100%) 35045 (100%) 55680 (100%)
FAO Sub-Committee on Aquaculture (3rd Session, New Delhi, India, 2006) Expressed concern over the emergence of a wide range of certification schemes and their cost/benefit value recognized the need for globally accepted norms for aquaculture production to serve: as a basis for improved harmonization and to facilitate mutual recognition and equivalence of such certification schemes; Requested FAO to: convene Expert Workshop (s) and to play a lead role in facilitating the development of guidelines for certification in aquaculture
The Process COFI-SC: AQ/III 8-12 September 2006 New Delhi, India January 2007: Secretariat, Advisory Group, E-mail recipient list, Website Bangkok Workshop February 2007 Guidelines - Draft 1 Fortaleza Workshop September 2007 Guidelines - Draft 2 Cochin, India meeting November 2007 London meeting February 2008 Guidelines - Draft 3 Silver Spring, Washington D.C meeting May 2008 Beijing meeting May 2008 Guidelines -Draft 4 COFI/AQ/IV 6-10 October 2008 PuertaVaras, Chile 28 th Session of COFI, 2 6 March 2009, Rome, Italy Comments by members - January 2009 Guidelines Draft 5 Technical consultation, Rome Italy, March 2010 5 th Session of COFI: SC on Aquaculture, Phuket, Thailand, September 2010 28 th Session of COFI: 31 January 4 February 2011
Contents 1. Background 2. Scope 3. Terms and Definitions 4. Users 5. Application 6. Principles 7. Minimum Substantive Criteria 7.1 Animal Health and Welfare 7.2 Food Safety and Quality 7.3 Environmental Integrity 7.4 Social Responsibility 8. INSTITUTIONAL AND PROCEDURAL REQUIREMENTS 8.1 Governance 8.2 Standards Setting 8.3 Accreditation 8.4 Certification 9. Implementation
1- Consistency with International Instruments Background ECG address a natural resource and define criteria to certify: its exploitation status and the related management regime The ACG deal with an aquatic animal production system and define criteria for farm inputs, facilities and practices to ensure: consumer protection, animal health and welfare, environmental integrity and social responsibility
1- Consistency with International instruments Recommendations of the Secretariat relevant international guidelines, codes and standards dealing with an array of different issues should be consulted and debated during the coming technical consultation: SPS and TBT agreements for definitions, scope and principles Codex texts should be used for specific definitions, criteria and certification respectively for food safety/quality OIE texts should be used for specific definitions, criteria and certification for animal health. ISEAL texts are relevant to environmental and social issues. Relevant ISO guides and standards are appropriate for the institutional and procedural requirements
2- Animal welfare or social responsibility Background Concern over theemergence of a wide range of certification schemes and accreditation bodies leading to confusion amongst producers and consumers The need for more globally accepted norms for aquaculture production, which could provide more guidance and serve as a basis for improved harmonization and facilitate mutual recognition and equivalence of such certification schemes; The consultative process concluded that all major aspects being certified by existing certification standards and schemes should be included in the guidelines on aquaculture certification social responsibility in fisheries and aquaculture is clearly outlined in the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries and its relevant technical guidelines.
2- Animal welfare or social responsibility Recommendations Careful consideration of the implications before limiting the criteria for the aquaculture certification guidelines; The secretariat advises members to consider the international debate on social responsibility and animal welfare, and decide whether it is sufficiently advanced to enable the up-coming technical consultation to discuss the issues and recommend whether animal welfare and social responsibility should be included in or exclude from the Aquaculture certification guidelines
3-Certification of all or some of the 4 areas? Background Various markets with varying requirements Certification required: by all markets and buyers for food safety, by many markets for animal health by few buyers for animal welfare or social responsibility
3-Certification of all or only some of the 4 areas Recommendations Members advised to consider flexibility to choose what criteria to be certified in line with the current practices in international fish trade; But the existing text should be modified to eliminate any confusion and to ensure that labels and claims cover the specific area(s) certified against and do not convey misleading or confusing information
4-special needs of small scale aquaculture or developing countries Background Particular provisions for technical assistance or special and differential treatments of developing countries are part of international instruments e.g. : SPS (Articles 9 and 10) and TBT (Articles 11 and 12) Agreements of the WTO FAO CCRF (Article 5 Special Requirements for Developing Countries) Guidelines for eco-labeling in marine capture fisheries (Paragraph 6)
4-special needs of small scale aquaculture or developing countries Recommendations Members are advised to capture the same idea and principles in the guidelines for aquaculture certification; If this is retained, the text should clarify: that technical assistance is not a pre-requisite for certification and that certification of an aquaculture product means conformity of the product and production process to the requirements of the guidelines, regardless of whether the operation is small or large scale in a developing or developed country
5-Core government functions and voluntary requirements Background Government prerogatives in areas like consumer and animal health protection National jurisdictions are expanding to areas like: eco-labeling or social responsibility How to ensure that government and private sector activities in standard setting and certification are: complementary and synergistic?
5-Core government functions and voluntary requirements Recommendations Members should clarify the roles of governments and that of private schemes and promote synergy; The TBT agreement provide a good framework. It delineates the role and responsibility of: Central governments, regional governments and non government organizations in charge of setting: standards technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures
6-Foodsafety only, or food safety and quality Background The ACG refer to the SPS and TBT agreements of the WTO These 2 agreements refer to the Codex Alimentarius Commissionas the international body which sets standards, codes of practice and guidelines for food safety and quality The Codex requirements for quality are minimum substantive criteria that reflect good practices along the aquaculture value chain, including during production
6-Foodsafety only, or food safety and quality Recommendation Members are advised to define criteria for safety and quality in the guidelines for aquaculture certification, so as to reflect good practices during aquaculture production, in conformity with Codex Implementation of Good practice would lead to a fair and level playing field among aquaculture producers
Lessons learned and future perspectives Objective: Standards and certification of commodities to facilitate market access and promote good practices. Have we achieve this? Standards and certification in the agenda of other organizations: World Trade Organization (WTO, SPS and TBT Committees) Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD) Organization Internationale des Epizooties (OIE) Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) International Standard organization (ISO, TC 234) WWF
TBTAgreement Annex 1. Definitions Technical regulation Document which lays down product characteristics or their related processes and production methods, including the applicable administrative provisions, with which compliance is mandatory. It may also include or deal exclusively with terminology, symbols, packaging, marking or labelling requirements as they apply to a product, process or production method.
TBTAgreement Annex 1. Definitions Standard Document approved by a recognized body, that provides, for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines or characteristics for products or related processes and production methods, with which compliance is not mandatory. It may also include or deal exclusively with terminology, symbols, packaging, marking or labelling requirements as they apply to a product, process or production method.
TBTAgreement Annex 1. Definitions Conformityassessmentprocedures Any procedure used, directly or indirectly, to determine that relevant requirements in technical regulations or standards are fulfilled
SPS/TBT Agreements General Principles Sovereignty Harmonization Equivalency Scientific basis Transparency Technical Assistance Special and differential treatment Consultation and dispute settlement
any measure Scope of SPS and TBT is different! technical regulations, standards, conformity assessment procedures Central Governments, regional Governments, Non Government Organizations
Disciplines on standardizing bodies (Article 4, and Annex 3 on the CGP) Substantive provisions in CGP main body of TBT Agreement nondiscrimination avoidance of unnecessary barriers to trade use / participation international standards transparency / consultation
Acknowledged (Article 4.2) Standardizing bodies that have accepted and are complying with the Code of Good Practice shall be acknowledged by the Members as complying with the principles of this Agreement
Non-governmental standardizing body (TBT Agreement, Article 4.1, second sentence) "They [Members] shall take such reasonable measures as may be available to them to ensure that local government and non-governmental standardizing bodies within their territories, as well as regional standardizing bodies of which they or one or more bodies within their territories are members, accept and comply with this Code of Good Practice."
TBTC Decision on International Standards (Nov 2000) Principles: transparency openness impartiality and consensus relevance and effectiveness coherence and development dimension
Austria Belgium Bulgaria Cyprus Czech. R Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Ireland Italy Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Netherlands Poland Portugal Romania Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden UK G-20 EU G-27 Mexico India China Venezuela Indonesia Pakistan Philippines Peru Chile Brazil Bolivia Solomon Islands LDCs G 90 Bangladesh Cambodia Chad Maldives Burkina Faso Myanmar Burundi Togo Nepal Central African Rep Djibouti DR Congo Mali Gambia Guinea Guinea Bissau Lesotho Malawi Mauritania Niger Sierra Leone Rwanda Haiti Cuba US G 1 Benin Madagascar Senegal Uganda Tanzania Zambia Nigeria Zimbabwe Gabon Ghana Namibia Botswana Cameroon Congo Côte d Ivoire Kenya Mozambique ACP Fiji Papua New Guinea Belize Barbados Antigua/Barbuda Dominica DominicanRep Grenada Guyana St Vincent/Grenadines Trinidad/Tobago Jamaica Suriname St Kitts/Nevis St Lucia Albania Armenia China Croatia Ecuador FYR- Macedonia Georgia Jordan KyrgyzR Moldova Mongolia Oman Panama S. Arabia Ch Taipei Viet Nam Recent new TROPICAL PRODUCTS (Bolivia) (Colombia) (Costa Rica) (Ecuador) El Salvador (Honduras) (Guatemala) (Nicaragua) (Panama) (Peru) (Venezuela) G-33 Honduras Mongolia Nicaragua Panama Sri Lanka Turkey El Salvador Uruguay Australia Thailand Canada Mauritius Paraguay Colombia Argentina Costa Rica Angola R Korea Guatemala Egypt Swaziland Malaysia N Zealand Tunisia Morocco Iceland Israel Japan Liechtenstein Norway Cairns Group S Africa African Group G-10 Switzerland Ch Taipei «Friends of Fish»: Australia, Chile, Ecuador, Iceland, New Zealand, Peru, Philippines & US
Private standards at WTO (Summary) A new area for WTO since 2005 (SPS Committee) For some WTO members, the use of private standards to: encourage the use of responsible practices thus helping suppliers to improve quality and gain access to markets
Private standards at WTO Other WTO members question whether: private standards and certification schemes duplicate or complement government work (e.g. food safety, animal health) they improve sustainability, consumer and environmental protection or only add another cost of compliance they comply with the disciplines of the SPS and TBT Agreements (e.g. transparency, scientific basis,... How to define boundaries between public regulations on the one hand and private market standards on the other? What mechanism to use to challenge the use of private standards as TBT?
Market driven phase B2B Focus B2B Focus Ecolabel Focus Catching Farming Sector Processors Retailers Governments Policymakers Fisheries Bodies National Fisheries
Transitional Fisheries also need motivation Incentivise instead of penalising social dimensions are far reaching Depleted Underexploited 0% Moderately/Fully Exploited 100% IUU 'Transitional Fisheries Eco- Certified Degree of Sustainability Rating - Scale 0-100 % (Illustrative)
Equitable share of responsibility, costs and benefits Governments Policymakers Fisheries Bodies Catching Farming Sector Processors Retailers NGO s Fisheries and aquaculture Sustainability is too important to leave it only to the market or only to policymakers
Thank you http://www.fao.org/fishery/about/cofi/aquaculture/en Lahsen Ababouch Chief, Fish Utilization and Marketing Service Fisheries and Aquaculture Department Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Office F -608. VialedelleTermediCaracalla 00153 Rome, Italy Tel: +39 06 570 54157 Fax: +39 06 570 55188 Website http://www.fao.org/fi/default.asp