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Research & Development Coordinator Training in Environmental Management Systems to Enable Aquaculture Industry Certification

Final Report

Prince Edward Island Aquaculture Alliance

AIMAP 2011-MA02

Summary/Abstract

This objective of this project was to train the three aquaculture industry association Research and Development Coordinators (RDCs) in ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems and certification schemes currently available to the industry. This training provided the RDCs with some of the expertise to assist their members in the process of adopting some form of certified sustainability verification.

It was conducted under the 2011-2012 AIMAP program.

The work was done by Peter Warris, RDC, PEIAA, Danielle Goodfellow, RDC, AANS and
Darrell Green, RDC, NAIA

Introduction

Background

The certification of seafood producers at all levels of the industry (grower/harvester, processor, and distributor) by licensed third party certifiers is becoming more common. Standards for environmental/sustainability performance are currently being adopted by seafood producers. Much of this trend is driven by increased consumer awareness about where their food comes from, how it is produced and how it reaches them. Equally, producers want to demonstrate to customers that their products are derived from sustainable sources.

This trend towards certification must be addressed by the aquaculture industry. Larger operations, such as processors, have the financial means to do so and in most cases are better prepared for the certification process. Systems, policies and record keeping are already an integral part of their operations. Basics such as an auditable traceability system, product recall procedures and harvest records are required for CFIA and provincial licensing authorities. For smaller producers, often referred to as Small, Medium Enterprises (SME), especially in the shellfish aquaculture sector, these types of document systems are rare, mainly because they are not a necessity.

The level of document systems and record keeping in the small and medium sized aquaculture operations that make up the bulk of the sector in Atlantic Canada is not advanced enough to achieve third party certification under most existing or forthcoming standards. The necessity of implementing such a system and having it verified by a consultant auditor would place a heavy financial burden upon these businesses. This project sought to address that technical gap and alleviate the cost by using the Research and Development Coordinators (RDCs) as a trained technical resource, available to association members at little or no cost.

Objectives

The objective of this project was to train the three aquaculture industry association RDCs in ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems and certification schemes currently available to the industry. This training provided the RDCs with some of the expertise necessary to assist their members in the process of adopting some form of certified sustainability verification.

Scope

This report covers the training taken by the RDCs. It does not examine any subsequent work on an Environmental Management System or similar document control systems because the specific direction that such work would take has not yet been determined by the industry.

Methods

Summary of training

The RDCs took the following courses through BSI:

Cormac O'Sullivan (Aquaculture Manager, Global Trust Certification) an experienced certification consultant presented an overview of the different standards available to aquaculture industry. Again the course was open to other interested industry members. Other participants included Bruce Hancock (AANS), Melissa Rommens (Scotian Halibut Ltd.), Leah Lewis- McCrea (Sweeney International Management Corp.), Aaron Ramsay (DFARD), Lynn Woodland (Prince Edward Aqua Farms) and Dana Drummond (Atlantic Aqua Farms). The RDC's would like to thank the Aquaculture Association of Nova Scotia for hosting this event.

Other Activities

There were several other certification related activities that occurred over the course of the project that the RDCs were involved in.

Demonstrating Aquaculture Sustainability
Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) and the Canadian Aquaculture Standards Forum (CASF)
November 14 - 15, 2011– Ottawa, ON
The Demonstrating Aquaculture Sustainability Workshop built upon two previous National Aquaculture Certification Summits (May 2008 and November 2010) where participants learned about developments in standards and certification processes for aquaculture and their importance to the marketplace. This workshop sought to broaden the understanding among government, industry and retailers of the tools available to demonstrate sustainability, and how they can be used to improve public, buyer and investor confidence.

The NAIA Certification Benchmarking Project
Certification is now becoming an ever more important consideration for each of NAIA's trout, salmon and mussels farming members as a result of increasing market pressure for industry to demonstrate that it is sustainable. This market pressure is being applied by buyers of seafood (retailers such as Sobeys, Loblaws, Walmart, etc.) but is ultimately driven by environmental non- governmental organizations (ENGOs) concerned about environmental sustainability of food production systems and to a lesser extent, by consumers who are concerned about food safety and quality. Whatever the forces, certification is a growing trend worldwide.

In 2011 NAIA put together our Certification Benchmarking project, in partnership with Global Trust, to fully and comprehensively outline standard and certification options for NAIA members. This was accomplished through the delivery of open style operational (on-site) audits for interested salmonid and mussel farming and processing operations, including individualized company reports on the operations' choice of certification programs. An important step in obtaining certification, this report will allow mussel, trout and salmon companies to gauge their performance against existing (or emerging) standards for product quality, product safety and sustainability, and to address gaps which exist with respect to meeting these certification programs. This will also aid in the selection of certifications to be sought on a farm-by-farm basis and as a strategic direction for each sector; especially important for the mussel sector as many producers market product through the same processors.

The key objective of this project was to offer realistic but unofficial audits of NAIA member operations. The purpose was to provide companies with maximum feedback regarding certification program implementation, in light of feedback from actual audit findings at their own operation. In that regard, Global Trust performed audits to identify and measure common elements and general performance across known, established and recognized trout, salmon and bivalve shellfish standards. In order to enable the NAIA RDC, Darrell Green, to continue to evolve in his ability to serve SMEs in terms of certification readiness Darrell attended and played an active role in these audits. This has provides him with the expertise to assist SME in introducing the necessary paperwork systems, the ability to assess or audit them against their chosen certification standards prior to their actual certification. Benchmark audits were carried out as follows:

LBA Enterprises (Mussels) – Farm Audit - Jan 17, 2012
Cross Bay Mussel Farms (Mussels) – Farm Audit - Jan 18, 2012
B&B Farms – Farm Audit (Mussels) - Jan 30, 2012
Thimble Bay Farms – Farm Audit (Mussels) - Feb 1, 2012
Norlantic Processors – Processing Audit (Mussels) - Feb 1-2, 2012
Sunrise Fish Farms – Farm Audit (Mussels) - Jan 31, 2012
International Enterprises – Processing Audit (Mussels) - Feb 2-3, 2012
Ocean Fresh Mussels Ltd. – Farm Audit (Mussels) - Feb 3, 2012
Badger Bay Mussel Farms – Farm Audit (Mussels) - Jan 19, 2012
Allen's Fisheries – Processing Audit (Mussels) - Jan 16 - 17, 2012
ColdWater Fisheries – Farm Audit (Trout) - Nov 29, 2011
Northern Harvest Sea Farms – Farm Audit (Salmon) - Jan 20, 2012
Natures Sea Farms – Processing Audit (Salmonids) - Nov 27 - 28, 2011

PEI Aquaculture Alliance Grower Workshop on Bivalve Sustainability Standards and Certification Forum
March 27-28, 2012

The Grower Workshop on Bivalve Sustainability Standards was a one day workshop, targeted at shellfish growers, was led by Cormac O'Sullivan (Aquaculture Manager, Global Trust Certification) and involved an intensive review of two current bivalve aquaculture standards and their audit requirements. These standards were as follows:

Participants included: Beth Fortune (United Mussel Farms), Stephen Fortune (Bluebucks Mussels), Jason Simpson (Mussel Grower), Colin Reynolds (Mussel Grower), Dana Drummond (Atlantic Aqua Farms) and John Paquet (Prince Edward Aqua Farms), Peter Warris (PEIAA).

The Certification Forum was a one day workshop that had a broader audience and included multiple presentations on the topic of certification. Both Peter Warris (PEIAA) and Danielle Goodfellow (AANS) attended this event.

Conclusion

Danielle Goodfellow (AANS)

Prior to joining the Aquaculture Association of Nova Scotia as the RDC, I was aware of the commercial fisheries receiving pressure from retailers to become MSC certified. When I started working for the association, I began to realize that for our aquaculture members, adopting certification standards was more complex because of the various certification bodies involved in the process. The EMS training funded through AIMAP enabled me to gain a better understanding what an EMS entails, how the audits are conducted on site, the importance of paper traceability and the range of certification standards that are offered and will be offered in the future. Gaining this experience allowed me to work more closely with our finfish and shellfish sectors to examine what options are most viable for the industry. Our finfish sector is interested in exploring options that may allow them to gain access to niche markets. Currently we are exploring the Organic Standards, but other certification standards are being taken into consideration as well. The shellfish sector has not received any direction from retailers, so most are just trying to keep updated on the progress. I feel more confident that I can play an active role in assisting our SMEs with their decision making process by providing them with helpful information and other industry examples from my courses. In the future, I think we should seek additional generalized training perhaps in Occupational Health and Safety. Another idea would be for ACAIRDN to draft a standardized EMS template for the aquaculture industry based on government regulations (federal and provincial). Developing this template would be useful for both finfish and shellfish sectors. RDCs are the liaison between industry and other organizations, we will have a more active role in facilitating the certification process as industry and retailers become clearer on their future needs.

Darrell Green, NAIA

Certification is becoming an ever more important consideration for NAIA's trout, salmon and mussels farming members. Aside from the question about whether or not retailers are demanding third-party-accredited products there are a range of questions around certification, such as:

Which certification programs would be most cost-effective (costs vs. returns) for my company? Which programs are most recognizable or most in demand? What is involved in getting third party certification for my product? What do I need to demonstrate through my certification - food safety? environmental sustainability? social responsibility?

Over the past year, within NAIA, I have been tasked with taking an active role in helping our members answer some of these questions. To that end the ACAIRDN project for training to enable aquaculture industry certification has been invaluable in allowing me to broaden my knowledge in relation third-party certification.

The information sessions comparing pertinent existing and emerging standards for both the mussel and salmonid sectors has helped me evaluate the pros and cons of existing and emerging standards and relay this to our members. The internal auditing and EMS training, along with practical experience in benchmark audits, has given me fundamental experience in the process of internal audits to any standard. And the certification implementation session has helped me become familiar with the processes a company would typically go through in the implementation of certification programs.

Overall, this new knowledge will be of direct benefit to the aquaculture industry in Atlantic Canada from both a company perspective and as an aid to development agencies and regulators. I have already been able to answer countless questions and give advice to each of our companies on certification programs, implementation and strategic directions for sectors. I have been able to represent our members on technical committees (e.g. Canadian Organic Standard Steering Committee), have evaluated draft standards and given advice (e.g. advice to Canada's representative on the WWF Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue (SAD)) and have been asked to provide advice to funding agencies when evaluating proposals related to certification.

Peter Warris, PEIAA

This project was instigated to help avoid the “two tier” situation for smaller scale growers.

For any seafood processor to supply certified product they must buy from approved / certified producers. Unless they are 100% vertically integrated, (i.e. they own and operate all the leases they harvest from) they will be buying from these smaller independent farmers. Therefore these smaller producers need to be certified, or one of the following situations will develop; either

The RDC position was originally intended to provide technical assistance for their association members, and in the area of certification some specialised training was required. This has now been completed, along with a number of other activities that have added to their knowledge and experience.

Ideally each of us would have had the opportunity to accompany an experienced auditor as Darrell had in Newfoundland. This is one future activity that we should take any opportunity to participate in, such as the upcoming CAIA pilot project on FAO based certification. With actual audit experience the RDCs can continue as a valuable resource to their members, for example in the implementation of environmental management systems or other forms of record keeping. Being able to offer their services as internal auditors could also have a major impact on the economy of adopting a certification scheme. Global GAP, for example, insists on one internal audit annually, plus regular reviews of policy documents, risk analysis reports and records. Hiring a consultant for this could cost as much as $1,200/day, for one or two days per year.

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