Collaboration and Certification

All salmon farmers in the Faroe Islands are subject to legislation and regulation introduced in 2003 known as Faroese Veterinary Model. This tightened controls, and promoted voluntary segregation of farming sites and operations, improving fish health and welfare standards across the Faroes.

Among other measures, the new model introduced fallowing periods between each generation, immunisation and vaccination programs, restricted movement of equipment and fish, density limits, minimum distances between farms and hatcheries, and rules to fight and control sea-lice.

The model, combined with additional company efforts, not only reduced mortality rates from 18% to 6%, it also increased the harvesting weight of Faroese salmon by 20% between 1993 and 2010, decreased feed conversion rate by 2%, and improved productivity by over 40%, over the same period (source: www.avrik.fo).

It has provided good indicators for healthy salmon farming and in doing so created one of the most predictable fish production environments in the world.

Bakkafrost is also subject to strict regulation from the environment agency to ensure we operate within national limits.

As part of our GSI membership, we have committed to having all our sites certified by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC). The goal was to have all sites in the Faroe Islands certified to the standard by 2020, and we managed to achieve our goal.

Founded in 2010 by WWF and IDH (The Sustainable Trade Initiative) the ASC is an independent not for profit organisation which works with aquaculture producers, seafood processors, retail and foodservice companies, scientists, conservation groups and consumers to promote responsibly farmed seafood through certification and labelling. Its primary role is to manage the global standards for responsible aquaculture, developed by the Aquaculture Dialogues coordinated by WWF.

In 2015, Bakkafrost became the first Faroese salmon farmer to get ASC certification at a site and ASC Chain of Custody across our value chain. And in 2020 all Bakkafrost sites in the Faroe Islands were certified to the ASC standard.

For more information on the ASC, visit www.asc-aqua.org

Bakkafrost is a proud founding member of the Global Salmon Initiative (GSI), an international leadership initiative established to significantly improve the sustainability and transparency of salmon farming.

The initiative brings together global farmed salmon producers and other industry stakeholders (such as the WWF, ASC and the industry feed companies) to significantly improve the sustainability of the sector; improving human health, environmental responsibility and efficient feed conversion rate; achieving the highest standards of members’ corporate citizenship; and in turn enhancing social license to operate and market acceptance.

Together with the industry, the GSI is focused on advancing three specific objectives:

1.Biosecurity: through sharing of best practices and knowledge, GSI hopes to have a substantial impact on decreasing levels of sea lice, reducing the use of antibiotics, and improving fish health.

2.Sustainable feed: in partnership with the industry feed companies – Biomar, Cargill, Skretting and Salmofoods, the GSI is continually evaluating the sustainability of feed raw materials and looking for new innovative approaches to improve the industry’s FCR and health profile.

3.Industry standards: by supporting members to reach the Aquaculture Stewardship Certification (ASC) standard, the initiative is advancing sustainability standards across the salmon industry.

Using the ASC standard as a framework, the GSI has increased transparency through annual reporting on key sustainability indicators including feed and raw materials, fish escapes, and social impacts.

GSI Handbook:

For more information on the GSI, visit www.globalsalmoninitative.org

“As one of the original GSI members, Bakkafrost continues to play a global leadership role in the initiative. Their high level of engagement and willingness to share updates and insights when it comes to improvements in sustainability and biosecurity has been important in speeding the rate of progress, and to driving improvement across the whole sector.”

Avrim Lazar, Convenor of the Global Salmon Initiative

Bakkafrost is proud to be a founding member of the Faroese Sustainable Business Initiative: Burðardygt Vinnulív.

Founded in early 2021, the initiative is managed and coordinated from the Faroese House of Industry. The project aims to advance sustainable business practice and contribute towards UN Sustainable Development Goals such as Climate Action.

Here you can find the report that outlines the first phase of the initiative's plan, including commitments from the participants.