IFFO RS Standard achieves growth in 2016, looks towards 2017

The IFFO RS Standard has continued to expand its reach, with 118 certified marine ingredients producing factories located in 16 countries. Morocco is the latest country to join the program, and by the end of this year, the program will represent almost 45% of the total world output of fishmeal and fish oil. At it\'s last meeting, the IFFO RS Governance Board (GB) decided to carry out a full strategic review in 2017 to agree on the Standard going forward to 2025. The first full draft of the IFFO RS V2.0 Standard (excluding mixed trawl fishery criteria) should be ready and opened for a 60-day public consultation period beginning in January 2017.

December 15, 2016

The IFFO RS Certification Program is also recognized as a credible standard for responsible sourcing and production of marine ingredients by the major aquaculture standards such as GAA Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) and the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC). It is expected that the production of compliant certified IFFO RS material will continue to increase over the years, and the development of the new version 2.0 of the IFFO RS standard should help with this expected increase.

At it\'s last meeting, the IFFO RS Governance Board (GB) decided to carry out a full strategy review in 2017, involving a wide-ranging consultation of stakeholders, including industry and NGO’s. The purpose of this review is to agree on a strategy for the Standard going forward to 2025. The IFFO RS GB has also decided to continue with the implementation of all the ISEAL codes into the IFFO RS Certification Program, but has decided to put the membership application process on standby as the final application will depend on the outcome of the proposed strategic review.

The development of the IFFO RS V2.0 Standard has been carried out in two parts. The revised fishery criteria and proposed new assessment methodology (excluding mixed trawl fishery criteria) were opened up for a 30 day public consultation in August 2016. The factory audit criteria are under development and the aim is for the first full draft of the Standard (excluding mixed trawl fishery criteria) to be ready and opened for a 60-day public consultation period from January 2017. The intention is to have this new version ready to be launched in June/July 2017, with a period of implementation of approximately 12 months for existing IFFO RS certificate holders. The mixed trawl fishery section of the fisheries assessment will be included in the new version by the end of 2017.

The 60-day public consultation period will start on the 16th January 2017 and run until 17th March 2017. All necessary information and templates to use for the consultation will be available on the IFFO RS website.