ASC Supports Industry Improvement At Blue Food Innovation Summit

Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) was a Silver Partner at the Blue Food Innovation Summit (BFIS) in London on 21 and 22 May, with in person and virtual attendees at the event which brought together leaders at the forefront of driving positive change in the seafood industry.

The event kicked off with a keynote speech from Rt. Hon. Lord Benyon, Minister of State at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and included two packed days of stimulating panel discussions.

CEO Chris Ninnes, Director of Research and Insight Bertrand Charron, Head of ASC Improver Programme Roy van Daatselaar and Senior Corporate Communications Manager Gaynyr Dickson were among 300 stakeholder delegates from over 40 countries who took part in the event, with Director of Innovation Alison Hutchins and Senior Project Coordinator Climate Change Jackie Ireland attending virtually.

In addition to speaking on an engaging panel on aquafeed innovation, Chris Ninnes hosted a lively roundtable discussion on The Future of Farmed Seafood Certification: Expanding Uptake and Value to Scale Impact.

The interesting discussion set out key challenges for the future operation of certification programmes, not least the need to scale the coverage of certification and to bring additional value to clients through ASC’s engagement with markets.

The roundtable participants also explored possible pathways to achieve scale, including the role of the ASC Improver Programme and how various innovations could also contribute to verifying farming improvements, without bringing unduly burdening small-scale producers.

Chris said, “The message was clear that both farmers and retail increasingly see value in how credible standard systems define sustainability and assess performance, but we must recognise that seafood farming is rapidly evolving through the use of technology and innovation and that we must embrace this.

“We clearly need to bring increased scale to the reduction of negative impacts and we need to do this more quickly. At ASC we see the future adoption of technology as pivotal to delivering increased social responsibility and environmental sustainability and to deliver increased value to our clients.”

Speaking about the value of the event, Chris said, “ASC was proud to be a Silver Partner for the Blue Food Innovation Summit this year, supporting innovation and improvement across the industry.

“The event was a great success and offered an opportunity to exchange ideas and make new partnerships with investors, innovators and leaders from seafood producers, retailers and NGOs to help us drive forward our work.

“The panel discussions had several recurring themes such as the need for greater collaboration, the importance of having a social license to operate, using positive people-based stories from industry to build trust with consumers and the need for affordable data solutions to improve supply chain transparency.

“At ASC we reap the benefits and impact of collaborative working through our many partnerships and we are already focusing on how data can increase transparency, which is so important in building consumer trust.

“I look forward to another great event next year where we can continue these important discussions.”

© Scoop Media