ASC: Alignment Farm Standard

Alignment is an important milestone in delivering ASC’s mission to help transform the industry towards more sustainable and responsible aquaculture.

The alignment process will create a single farm-level standard which provides greater consistency and harmonises requirements across all farmed seafood species currently targeted by ASC.
Currently, ASC manages a number of separate farm standards covering different species. Each provides industry-leading, robust environmental and social requirements, but because they have been developed at different times their requirements vary on some of the impacts that are common across aquaculture.

The aligned Farm Standard will cover all impact areas in one rigorous standard, and will include species-specific requirements where relevant. Alignment will also allow ASC to more efficiently expand its reach (e.g. adding production systems or new species) and will facilitate the swifter update of specific metrics.

ASC Farm Standard – Principle 1

ASC Farm Standard – Principle 2

ASC Farm Standard – Principle 3

The ASC Farm Standard

Linked to the ASC Vision, the ASC Farm Standard addresses the key negative environmental and social impacts associated with the aquaculture industry. An ASC certified farm contributes to the ASC Vision by reducing, mitigating or eliminating such negative impacts.

The current ASC species Standards contain 7 Principles; the ASC Farm Standard will have 3 Principles setting effective and credible requirements. The ASC Farm Standard will include production-system specific criteria (where applicable) and species-specific metrics (where applicable). Several new elements will be included under Farm Standard, including fish welfare and living wage requirements.

Principle 1 (P1): The UoC operates legally and applies effective business management.
Principle 2 (P2): The UoC operates in an environmentally responsible manner.
Principle 3 (P3): The UoC operates in a socially responsible manner.

Several rounds of public consultation have been undertaken during the development of the ASC Farm Standard. A final consultation period, covering the full Farm Standard will take place in September, 2023. In addition, pilot audits on a representative sample of species and production systems were conducted during Spring 2023.

Contact person: Michiel Fransen

Consultation best practice

ASC is the only aquaculture certification scheme to be ISEAL Code Compliant. ISEAL is a global membership association for credible sustainability standards whose members meet internationally accepted best practices.

ASC’s public consultations follow ISEAL’s Code of Good Practice for Setting Social and Environmental Standards, which stipulates that stakeholders have sufficient time and opportunity to provide input on the standard and can see how their input has been taken into account.

Next steps

The ASC Farm Standard will capture evolving best social and environmental aquaculture practices and be streamlined to ensure consistent auditing is possible. Feedback from all consultations and pilots undertaken to date is being used to adapt the proposals. After all feedback has been collated and considered, a final public consultation on the complete proposed Standard will take place in September 2023. The ASC Farm Standard is scheduled for release in 2024 and targeted to become operational in 2025.

Timeline

More information

[Page last updated on 31.10.2023]

Consultation period:

1 September – October 31 2023
Status: closed

Public Consultation VIII

Shrimp Welfare

Shrimp Health and Welfare – Draft Indicators (JP, VI, TH, ES)
FAQ Shrimp Health and Welfare
Shrimp Welfare – Slides with consultation questions (JA, VI, TH, ES)
Consultation questions (ES)

Cleaner Fish

Consultation period:

1 March – 30 April 2023
Status: closed

Public Consultation VII

Farm Standard Criterion 2.7 – Water Quality
Criterion 2.7 – Water Quality – Revised Criterion Draft

Criterion-2.7-Water-Quality-Annexes-Document

Criterion-2.7-Water-Quality-TWG-Recommendations Criterion 2.7 – Water Quality Consultation Slides Water-Quality-Consultation-Questions-Mar-Apr-2023

Criterion 2.7 – Water Quality Consultation FAQ

Translations

Criterion 2.7 – Water Quality – Revised Criterion Draft_Spanish

Criterion 2.7 – Water Quality – Annexes Document_Spanish

Criterion 2.7 – Water Quality Consultation Slides_Spanish

Criterion 2.7 – Water Quality – Revised Criterion Draft_Vietnamese

Criterion 2.7 – Water Quality – Annexes Document_Vietnamese

Criterion 2.7 – Water Quality Consultation Slides_Vietnamese

Criterion 2.7 – Water Quality – Revised Criterion Draft_Japanese

Criterion 2.7 – Water Quality – Annexes Document_Japanese

Criterion 2.7 – Water Quality Consultation Slides_Japanese

Farm Standard Criterion 2.14 Fish Health and Welfare

Fish Health and Welfare Consultation FAQ

Criterion 2.14 – Fish Health and Welfare Consultation Questions Mar-Apr 2023

2.14c – Slaughter Audit Mechanism Requirement

Criterion 2.14c – Slaughter Audit Mechanism Consultation Slides

Criterion 2.14c – Slaughter Audit Mechanism Consultation Video

Translations

Criterion 2.14c – Slaughter Audit Mechanism Consultation Slides_Spanish

Criterion 2.14c – Slaughter Audit Mechanism Consultation Slides_French

Criterion 2.14c – Slaughter Audit Mechanism Consultation Slides_Japanese

Criterion 2.14c – Slaughter Audit Mechanism Consultation Slides_Turkish

Criterion 2.14c – Slaughter Audit Mechanism Consultation Slides_Vietnamese

2.14x – Eyestalk Ablation Indicator

Criterion 2.14x – Eyestalk Ablation Consultation Slides

Criterion 2.14x – Eyestalk Ablation Consultation Video

Translations

Criterion 2.14x – Eyestalk Ablation Consultation Slides_Spanish

Criterion 2.14x – Eyestalk Ablation Consultation Slides_French

Criterion 2.14x – Eyestalk Ablation Consultation Slides_Japanese

Criterion 2.14x – Eyestalk Ablation Consultation Slides_Vietnamese

Consultation period:

1 September – 31 October 2022
Status: Closed

Public Consultation VI

Key materials

Criterion Draft 2.6 – Benthic Impacts (English, Bahasa Indonesia, Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish, and Vietnamese)

Criterion Draft 2.14 – Fish Health and Welfare (English, Bahasa Indonesia, French, German, Japanese, Mandarin, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish, and Vietnamese)

Consultation Survey

Accompanying materials

ASC Farm Standards Comparison Tool

ASC TWG Whitepaper on Standards for Aquaculture Impacts on Benthic Habitat Biodiversity and Function

FAQ

Consultation questions (English, Bahasa Indonesia, French, German, Japanese, Mandarin, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish, and Vietnamese)

The French, German, Portuguese and Turkish versions do not include the questions on Criterion 2.6 – Benthic Impacts.

Slide deck ASC Farm Standard – Criterion 2.6 & 2.14 (English, French, German, Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish, Turkish)

Received Feedback

Public Consultation Summary Report – Benthic Impacts (English, Japanese, Spanish)

Public Consultation Summary Report – Fish Health and Welfare (English, Japanese)

Consultation period:

1 March – 30 April 2022
Status: Closed

Public Consultation V

Key materials

Draft ASC Farm Standard (English, Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish, Vietnamese).
Consultation Survey (active in English, French, German, Japanese, to come in: Mandarin, Vietnamese).

Accompanying materials

Consultation survey offline pdf version (English, French, German, Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish, Vietnamese)

FAQ (English, French, German, Spanish, Vietnamese, Mandarin)

Slides explaining the alignment project (English, French, German, Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish, Vietnamese)

Slides explaining the proposal at criteria level (English, French, German, Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish, Vietnamese)

ASC Farm Standards Comparison Tool

Supporting documents: Sea Lice 1 – Sea Lice 2 – Water Quality – Benthic Impacts – Critical Indicators

TWG and AAG documents

Received Feedback

Feedback of March-April 2022 consultation

ASC-Farm-Standard-PC-V-Summary-Report-JP.pdf

Full Feedback