Certification systems define agreed-upon standards and practices for a range of criteria that organisations and importantly, must be verified by an independent third-party auditor. Certification systems will typically have input from a range of key stakeholders and address issues such as environmental, social and legal practices. For example, in aquaculture, certification systems set out standards that ensure high risk raw materials such as soy and palm are sourced sustainably and not from suppliers linked to deforestation. You can view BioMar Australia’s current certifications HERE.   

Today, more seafood is produced from aquaculture than wild capture worldwide. With the increasing demand for aquaculture, Certification systems are only becoming more important to ensure the industry is meeting best practices for important business operations such as supply chain management, sustainable sourcing, safety standards and environmental and social sustainability. Certification systems also drive continuous improvement for the industry. Certification systems use the latest science and information available and update their standards as significant changes happen, in turn challenging the industry to be agile and adapt to the latest science.  

While certifications systems are important in demonstrating industry's best practices and driving continuous improvement, they do have one drawback of limiting our suppliers, especially locally. There are many fantastic farmers across Australia producing high-quality raw materials, but unless they meet our strict certification standards, we cannot source from them. For example, no matter how good the raw material is, if they don’t have the correct traceability practices in place to ensure we can maintain our 100% traceable supply chain, we cannot source from them. Unfortunately, in many cases the benefits do not outweigh the cost for these farmers becoming certified.  

At BioMar, we will continue to challenge ourselves by meeting important certification systems, because We Care about demonstrating the world’s best practices, and We Care about sustainable aquaculture.