BAP - Best Aquaculture Practices

BAP is administered by the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GGA), a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion, education and leadership in responsible aquaculture.

BAP includes the entire aquaculture production chain from farms to processing plants, as well as hatcheries and feed factories; it also addresses environmental, social responsibility, animal welfare, food safety and traceability of aquaculture facilities.

BAP certification process

Application:

• Complete the application and the agreement electronically directly with BAP through the following link: https://bapcertification.org/Certification.
• Complete the self-assessment questionnaire.
• BAP will send you an invoice and you must make the payment.

Audit Coordination:

• If BAP assigns the audit to CU Services, we will send you an agreement containing the Terms of Contract.
• If you agree with the agreement, return a copy signed by the legal representative. Once this is done, you enter into an agreement with CU Services to join one of our certification programs.

Planning:

After receiving the signed agreement, CU Services will schedule your inspection visit.

Inspection:

• CU Services will perform a full on-site audit. If non-conformities are found, you must present corrective actions to close them. The auditor will review and close the nonconformities.

Certification:

• Based on the inspection findings, the certifier will perform a technical review of the report and determine compliance or non-compliance with the BAP standard. If compliance is determined, a BAP certificate will be issued and sent to BAP.

Approval and payment:

• BAP is notified of the certification; and will send you an invoice. Once BAP has received the payment, BAP will send you the certificate with a validation letter.

You will have the following benefits:

• Your facility will be listed on the BAP website
• The facility will receive the BAP logo
• Additionally, the status of Business Member of the Global Aquaculture Alliance is obtained

Maintenance:

• Every year after the initial certification, you will have to go through the entire certification process again. The OC to which you are assigned will determine if the requirements for certification continue to be met.

Normative:

• The BAP standard rules can be found at the following link: https://bapcertification.org/Standards