IFFO to develop a Code of Responsible Practice (CORP)
 
At their 2007 annual Conference in Sydney, the Board of IFFO decided to start developing a new business tool that would allow members to demonstrate the responsible practices behind the manufacture of their products.

The changing market for both fishmeal and fish oil convinced the Board of the need to develop a means by which IFFO members could demonstrate to users that their products are produced to high standards: from responsible raw material procurement, through safe manufacturing, to demonstrating quality and traceability.

The scheme will be voluntary, although it is hoped that most members will see the value of joining up, and compliance will require to be audited by a third-party, often in conjunction with a HACCP audit (HACCP compliance will be part of CORP). The company will need to show that its facilities are managed to ensure that there is no possibility of accidental or deliberate contamination of the products, that the raw materials are from managed fisheries (with Governments complying with the FAO Code of Responsible Fishing) and that no illegal or unreported fish were used.

IFFO staff are now working on drawing up the details of the code and we will be consulting with stakeholders in the value-chain to ensure that this will prove a useful initiative to all in the value-chain. The intention is not to develop an eco-label in competition with others which already exist in the market place, but a business-to-business tool to reassure users that the products are responsibly and carefully produced. In turn this should  allow IFFO members to differentiate their products from those produced in facilities which do not have the necessary control measures in place.

The intention is to develop the code over the next few months with the hope of having everything ready for final Board approval at the 2008 October Conference in San Diego.