The Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) has already shown some solid uptake in Europe since it launched, but it doesn’t have a single product in the US market.
ASC CEO Chris Ninnes was at the Boston seafood show this week to help change that fact. The executive booked meetings with major buyers to help convince them the ASC is one more quality and sustainability assurance mark that they need on their products.
“There’s a lot of interest in chatting in the US,” Ninnes said. “I think we will see our first ASC-labeled product here sometime soon.”
With the long, long process of the getting the ASC standards in place behind the group, Ninnes said companies are starting to look more closely at the program.
“I think people are thinking, ‘Ah, they finally have some product available,’” Ninnes said.
The next big standards that will likely be launched will be for farmed salmon. ASC recently trained 14 auditors in seven different countries to tackle salmon certifications, and the standard is expected to be launched within the next month.
“Getting salmon into the market will be a pivotal moment,” Ninnes said.