What ASC certification means for nearby communities

For local communities near ASC certified farms, the certification has several implications. While currently the species standards can vary in their content, generally farms are required to:

• ensure they have responsible environmental practices in place,
• ensure they respect their employees labour rights,
• engage with communities and respect their rights and needs,
• assess and minimise negative impacts on communities,
• set up grievance mechanisms for communities (and employees) to raise concerns,
• source goods, services and employees locally to ensure communities can benefit economically, and
• provide transparency and accountability about their practices.

As an example you can find a description of the content of two standards here:

• the ASC Salmon Standard.
• the ASC Shrimp Standard.

There are two ways to find out if a farm near you currently has an ASC certificate, had one in the past or is in the process of applying for one.

1. ASC’s farm mapping tool: https://gis.asc-aqua.org/arcgis_app/

Each dot on this map represents a farm site that currently is ASC certified, once was ASC certified, or has applied to become certified. There may be other farms near you that do not appear on the map, in which case they are not ASC certified and have never applied to become ASC certified.

By clicking on a dot, a window will appear that provides more details on the farm site, such as the name of the company, what species they grow (e.g. salmon, shrimp, bivalves etc.), their certification status (certified, cancelled, withdrawn, suspended, in initial audit etc.)

When you scroll down on this screen, you will also see the farm’s ASC certificate ID (a number that starts with the letters ASC). This number is useful as you can use it on another page to gain access to all audit information from that farm site.

NOTE: If you do not zoom far enough, multiple sites may appear in the same location. You can see this from the number at the top of the screen that pops up (in this example farm site 1 of 3). By clicking on the small arrow, you can see additional farm sites.

2. ASC’s find a farm page: https://asc-aqua.org/find-a-farm/ (and ASC’s find a feed mill page: https://asc-aqua.org/find-feed-mill/)

This page contains a search tool that has multiple fields. The easiest way to find a particular farm is by using the ASC certificate ID, in the search tool called the ASC certificate number.

In this example you see the search result when entering a specific farm

You can then click on the button on the left side of the results table (under ASC certificate number), which will take you to a screen with more detailed information, that you can also export to an Excel file.

Scrolling down (and clicking on the ‘+’sign) you will find links to the documents related to the audit that can be downloaded.

Each farm seeking or maintaining ASC certification undergoes an annual audit by an independent Conformity Assessment Body (CAB), accredited by Assurance Services International. During the audit, the CAB evaluates whether the farm meets ASC standards and identifies non-conformities, grading them as minor, major, or critical, with justifications included in the audit report.

• Minor non-conformities are less serious issues, not threatening product integrity, and may be extended for up to 12 months. If not resolved within 3 months, they may be upgraded to major non-conformities.
• Major non-conformities are significant failures that can affect the system or product integrity. They must be resolved within 3 months, or the certificate will be suspended. Extensions of up to 6 months are allowed.
• Critical non-conformities involve risks to employee safety or the detection of banned substances and when non-ASC certified product has been labelled as ASC certified. They must be addressed within 3 months, or the certificate will be withdrawn.

For each non-conformity, the farm must provide a root cause analysis and action plan, which the CAB reviews and includes in the audit report. Non-conformities are closed once the farm shows sufficient evidence of corrective actions. If more time is needed for corrective actions, the CAB may extend the deadline with valid justification.

Products from a certified farm can only be sold with the ASC label if each company in the supply chain that handles the product has Chain of Custody certification. This certification ensures it is possible to track and verify the movement of certified products throughout the supply chain.

The certification process has the following steps (see diagram). The steps highlighted in bold are those where communities can provide inputs into the process:

• A farm signs a contract with an ASC accredited CAB.
• The CAB announces the audit on the ASC website requesting feedback from stakeholders (1).
• The CAB conducts an on-site audit.
• The CAB prepares a draft audit report, the farm starts working on a corrective action plan.
• The draft audit report is published on ASC’s website and opened for public feedback (2).
• CABs make a final certification decision.
• The final audit report and certification decision are published on ASC’s website.
• Incidents related to the certificate holder can be reported at any time after the certificate has been awarded (3).

1. When the audit is announced

To find out when an audit is announced for a farm in a particular country, you can register to receive alerts of audit updates: ASC Customized email alerts | Data Aquaculture Stewardship Council

On this page you can select a species/country combination to receive alerts. Make sure that you click ‘Yes‘ in the section called “Include audit information?”

Another option is to look at the page with the farm’s certification information and check when the certificate expires. This information is also available from the pop-out screen of the farm mapping tool described above. A few months before the certificate expires, the farm will start planning a new audit. In addition, farms will undergo a surveillance audit at annual intervals. CABs post audit announcements in advance of the audit on the ASC website.

This will generate emails with information on announced audits, the company to be audited and the CAB that will be conducting the audit. Clicking the link at the start of each row will take you to the webpage with further information on this farm.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to receive information for a specific region or farm only.

2. When the audit has taken place, and a draft report has been issued

Once the auditor has conducted the audit and has written their draft audit report, it will be posted on the ASC website on the page of the respective farm (which you can access through the find a farm webpage or the mapping tool). Anyone that is interested has 21 days to review the report and provide comments to the CAB directly. The contact information for the CAB can be found on the ‘Find a farm page.

3. At any time after a certificate has been issued

There are several ways you can provide inputs any time after a farm has been certified, when you have a complaint about a farm or when you think the audit process has not been properly followed.

As a first step, we always urge you to engage with the respective farm. A farm may not necessarily be aware of the impact that you are experiencing and should always have an opportunity to remediate an issue themselves.

Each farm should have a complaints mechanism that is publicly accessible. Information about this can usually be found on the companies’ website and/or farms may have posted other announcements about how to register complaints, they may also have a complaints box or other physical option to submit complaints. Companies may sometimes have community engagement officers that have the responsibility to engage with you.

If you have, however, good reasons to believe that a farm near you is not following the rules set out by the relevant ASC standard, you can contact the CAB that has carried out the last audit. This Information can be found on the respective Find a Farm web page (under certification details).

While ASC has a careful process to ensure that the standards include the most salient issues, they are global standards and practices are always changing. It is therefore possible that the impact you are experiencing is not fully covered by the ASC standard in which case an auditor has no ability to address the issue as part of the audit. If this is the case, please contact ASC’s standards team to highlight this issue, so that it can be considered during the next round of standard revisions, by writing an email to the Standards team.

All ASC accredited CABs receive oversight from Assurance Services International (ASI). If you have provided comments to a CAB, but after that, have reason to believe these have not been handled appropriately, you have the option to report your concerns to ASI using following the procedure on their website.