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About ASC
ASC is founded on, and committed to, transforming seafood farming by championing the making of real and meaningful change
Our vision…
is a world where seafood farming plays a major role in supplying food and social benefits for humanity whilst minimising negative impacts on the environment.
Our mission…
is to transform seafood farming towards environmental sustainability and social responsibility, creating value across the chain using market mechanisms, improvement incentives and delivering value-added services from farm to fork.
How we go about it…
Championing and Making Change
With the most robust standards and the highest assurance, we ensure traceability and transparency throughout the supply chain. By choosing ASC labelled seafood, consumers in over 115 countries are contributing to a more sustainable future.
ASC drives farmed seafood transformation through two key approaches:
We champion change by leveraging our expertise, fostering innovation, and partnering with the supply chain to amplify our impact.
We make change by collaborating to develop the world’s leading independent certification and improver programmes for responsibly farmed seafood.
Our history
In 2010, we launched the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) as an impact-driven NGO. We partnered with the Dutch Sustainable Trade Initiative IDH and WWF Netherlands to make aquaculture more sustainable. We do this by setting strict standards for seafood and farms and deliver high assurance throughout the supply chain.
Our ISEAL membership and credibility of the ASC Standards
Our system has been evaluated against, and complies with, the ISEAL Code – a globally recognised framework that defines practices for effective and credible sustainability systems. As the global membership organisation for ambitious, collaborative and transparent sustainability systems, ISEAL drives collective efforts to tackle the most pressing sustainability issues and create a world where markets are a force for good. Playing in line with this code, we’ve become the world’s leading farmed seafood certification programme from farm to fork.
To ensure a credible, inclusive and transparent standard setting process the standards were developed in line with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) guidelines and ISEAL Code of Good Practice for Sustainability Systems. Find out more about how we develop standards on our Programme Improvements page.
For all inquiries and feedback on any of the ASC standards or to request a hard copy of public summaries, standards or other related materials, please contact the Standards and Science Team at standards@asc-aqua.org.
