a compliance study of Bangladesh shrimp aquaculture - The United ...

SerajTable 8: Classification of certification according to its promoter.Governor/ promoterGovernmentsRetailersExamplesThailand’s Thai Quality Shrimp, China’s Safety agri-food certification,ChinaGAP and Green food standard; Vietnam GAP and CoC programme; HongKong Accredited Fish Farm Scheme, Australia’s Ecologically SustainableDevelopment, shrimp certification in Brazil etcGLOBALGAP, a certification program of 22 large-scale retail chains in Europe,the Euro-Retailer Produce Association (EUREP). Others are Safe Quality Food,Carrefour etc.Aquaculture industry Global Aquaculture Alliance & Aquaculture Certification Council, SIGES –SalmonChile, Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation Code of Good Practice.NGOMarine Aquarium Council, International Standards Organization etc.3.7 Trends in aquaculture certification and its market responseThe number of schemes for the certification of aquaculture products has been increasing overthe years. New schemes as well as schemes involved primarily with other sectors expandingalso to the aquaculture sector. To allow small-scale producers to access certification, schemesare increasingly including the possibility to certify producers’ groups or clusters, in additionto individual businesses (Flavio et al. 2007).Kristin et al. (2003) found that certification in general brings significant improvements toenvironmental management systems such as data recording and use and plant maintenance.A study by the Seafood Choices Alliance in 2003 found that 72% customers would be morelikely to buy seafood bearing an environmentally responsible label (Fliess et al. 2007).A survey conducted in 2005 among European consumers, supermarkets and chefs revealedthat 79% said that environmental impact influences their purchasing decisions of seafood. Itwas conducted by the Seafood Choices Alliance, in partnership with WWF, Greenpeace, theMarine Conservation Society and the North Sea Foundation in the United Kingdom, Germanyand Spain. They found that 86% of consumers would prefer to buy ecolabelled seafood and40% of consumers were willing to pay a higher price for such products. The study alsoidentified that 95% of the consumers wanted more information on how to buy sustainableseafood, 62% said fish caught in an environmentally responsible manner is of higher qualityand 84% of consumers say one should refuse to purchase seafood that is overfished or caughtin a way that damages the ocean environment (WWF, 2005).Imkamp (2000) compared two survey reports on consumer behaviour on ecolabelled productscarried out in 1989 and 1998 in Germany. In the first survey (1989), consumers showedconsiderably less interest in information about ecologically relevant product attributes than inthe second survey (1998). In particular, there was evidence that in comparison to commonproduct quality information, on average consumers rate the relative importance of ecologicalproduct information higher. He found that the consumers wanted product testing agencies totake into account more aspects of products that are related to ecology and more consumerswould prefer reliable standardized ecological information obtainable at the point of purchase.Finally, the results showed that at least for some products, the scope of perceived ecologicalrisks seems to have increased and that consumers generally are becoming concerned withharmful effects of the production and distribution of a product.UNU-Fisheries Training Programme 13