Aquaculture Stewardship Council

Foundation Member | Tracking Since October 2022

Aquaculture Stewardship Council Sustainability Actions

We develop and manage the strictest standards in the industry.

These standards include hundreds of requirements covering the potential impacts of aquaculture – including water quality, responsible sourcing of feed, disease prevention, animal welfare, the fair treatment and pay of workers and maintaining positive relationships with neighbouring communities. To become ASC certified, a farm is assessed by an independent organisation against every single requirement in the relevant standard. If it passes the audit, seafood from the farm can be sold with the ASC logo, which allows consumers to reward these responsible farmers by purchasing their products.

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ASC Impact Tracker

Data gathered by ASC is used to quantify programme impacts, to drive future improvements to the ASC standards and to support us in championing change through our collaborations and partnership. Dive into our Impacts Tracker to learn more about the growth of the programme.

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2.04M tonnes of responsible seafood

In 2023, ASC certified farms produced 2.04M tonnes of responsible seafood, delivering an additional 6.4% in ASC labelled products to consumers worldwide in 17 more countries.

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Environmental & Social Improvements on Farms

In 2023, our certified farms delivered over 4,000 environmental and over 3,000 social improvements on farms. Trained auditors conducted over 1,300 audits across 51 countries and we celebrated an 89% retention of certified farms in our programme.

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Improver Programme by ASC

At ASC, we see the power in small changes as well as big ones. We already drive and support improvements in seafood farming at scale across the world through our certification programme, and now we want to support farmers making a positive impact on the farming that is not certified. The Improver Programme by ASC supports farms who are not ready or eligible for ASC certification but are committed to improving their farming practices through an Aquaculture Improvement Project (AIP). We recognise the opportunity in the total impact of all of these smaller changes so that even in non-certified farming every small improvement takes us closer to our goal of transforming seafood farming, as a whole, for the future. After a successful pilot phase, the Improver Programme by ASC is now fully operational and interested in hearing from shrimp farms across the world who would like to make a positive impact.

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New ASC Farm Standard

Aligning our species standards into one ASC Farm Standard has provided an opportunity to further develop and strengthen our human rights requirements, in consultation with a broad range of stakeholders. Based on ILO conventions and other international standards of decent work, the ASC Farm Standard includes criteria on human rights awareness, the prevention of forced labour, the prevention of child labour, the prevention of discrimination, health and safety, collective bargaining and freedom of association, transparent contracts, wages, working hours, workplace conduct reports, employee accommodation, grievance mechanisms and community engagement.

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What do our labels mean?

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About Aquaculture Stewardship Council

  • Status
  • Employees
  • 100 - 500
  • Industry
  • Non-profit
  • Country
  • Australia
  • Founded
  • 2010