The Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) has formed an alliance with the China Aquatic Products Processing and Marketing Alliance (CAPPMA) and WWF China to help the world’s biggest grower of tilapia to operate in a more environmentally sustainable way.
The partnership was funded through a €1 million (41.3 million) grant from EU-China Environmental Governance Program.
Tilapia is the second largest species of fish farmed (after carp) worldwide. Global production of farmed tilapia is almost 3 million metric tonnes a year, with 40 percent produced by China. Four southern provinces, Hainan, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian, account for about 90 percent of China’s total production.
China is the world’s biggest tilapia exporter, with over 50 percent of Chinese tilapia entering into the global market. The EU is currently the third largest importer of Chinese tilapia, with a share of around 10 percent. An increasing number of European consumers are buying tilapia and the EU is a growing market for Chinese tilapia.
The two-year project has three specific objectives: to improve the transparency of Chinese tilapia aquaculture production by improving public access to detailed information on the tilapia supply chain; to promote sustainable production of Chinese tilapia by introducing ASC standards to China and supporting leading Chinese tilapia producers selling to the European market to achieve ASC Certification; and to establish and maintain an effective information sharing platform accessible to the public and to advocate for policy and guide consumer demand that can enable and encourage sustainable tilapia production practices.