| To be considered for Best Aquaculture Practices certification by Aquaculture Certification Council, Inc., applicants shall complete the following steps. |
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| 1. Review Certification Application Form (10 pages in Microsoft Excel format) and Guidelines for Standards (15 pages in PDF format). The Certification Application Form collects contact information for farm facilities and, if applicable, their parent companies, as well as general background data. It also requests information on farm facilities' management practices for the Best Aquaculture Practices standards that comprise the certification program. The Guidelines for Standards outline the value of the standards, guidelines for their implementation and additional resources. |
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| To be certified, the facility shall meet the evaluation criteria stated in the Application Form guidelines for all the standards and maintain specified production records regarding traceability for at least three months. Due to changes in regulatory requirements and new standards development, future changes to the BAP criteria and standards may be required. |
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| 2. Return completed Application Form with fee to ACC. The applicant shall answer all of the questions under "Facility Information" at the beginning of the Application Form, as well as all critical and informational questions under "Inspection Information." Return the completed Application Form with payment of a U.S. $500 application fee to the ACC office. This fee is subject to change without notice. Adjacent farms with the same owner(s) that draw water from and discharge water to the same sources should supply the farm names on a single application and pay a single application fee. |
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| Upon receipt of the form and application fee, the ACC office will review the information and provide general guidance to help the applicant correct minor problems or advise the applicant to contact a consultant for help with more major problems. If the facility chooses to use a consultant, it is responsible for all consultant fees. |
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| 3. Sign Facility Certification Agreement and pay facility inspection fees. When ACC is satisfied that the applicant is ready to proceed with certification, the ACC sends a Facility Certification Agreement containing the terms and conditions of the BAP certification program and the fee structure. The applicant shall sign the contract and return it to the ACC office with the annual inspection fee of U.S. $3,000. After receipt of the agreement and inspection fee, ACC appoints an inspector to inspect the facility. |
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| Fees for farms or farm clusters of less than 50 hectares and/or producing less than 100 metric tons of whole catfish per year are negotiable. ACC recognizes the importance of smaller facilities achieving certified status and uses its best efforts to arrange fees that accomodate smaller facilities. |
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| 4. ACC selects and pays evaluator. ACC selects the evaluator and asks the applicant if the company has any conflicts of interest with the selected evaluator. The evaluator then contacts the facility to arrange a date for the evaluation inspection. ACC is responsible for all travel expenses and evaluator fees. The applicant may be responsible for local travel arrangements for the evaluator, if required. The evaluation inspection process for farms generally requires one to two days, assuming records, permits and other pertinent documents are current and available. |
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| 5. Complete site inspection. During the site inspection of the farm facility, the evaluator reviews records, observes procedures and considers human resources. He or she also samples effluents to determine their compliance with BAP criteria, with the applicant responsible for testing costs. |
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| The applicant shall allow full access to staff and pertinent information, including production records, and should not hesitate to ask questions to better understand the process. The evaluator reports evaluation results to the farm representative and ACC within 10 working days following the evaluation inspection. |
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| For the facility to be certified, it shall comply with all (100%) of the critical inspection requirements and score at least 70% (50 of 72 points) on the scored inspection requirements. After five years, certified facilities shall comply with all critical requirements and score 80% or better on the scored requirements. |
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| Farms have up to one year from the date of application to be certified. In some cases, farms unable to certify within this period that are working on updates may be granted a limited extension of time to comply with the BAP guidelines. |
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| 6. Pay program certification fee. After a successful evaluation inspection and review, the farm shall pay a certification fee based on the facility's total production volume in the previous calendar year. Farms with annual production of up to 500 metric tons of whole catfish pay a minimum fee of U.S. $500. Farms with over 500 metric tons capacity add U.S. $1 for each metric ton of annual production beyond 500 to the minimum fee, up to a maximum of U.S. $4,000. For example, a farm with 700 metric tons of annual production would pay the U.S. $500 minimum plus an additional U.S. $200 for the 200 metric tons over 500, for a total of U.S. $700. |
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| Adjacent farms with the same owner(s) that draw water from and discharge water to the same sources pay a single program certification fee based on the total combined annual productions of the adjacent farms. The maximum program certification fee for such farms is U.S. $4,000. This fee is subject to change without notice. |
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| 7. Check ACC Website for company listing. Once the facility is approved for certification and all fees are paid, a unique certification number is assigned to the farm, a certification certificate is issued and the facility is added to the list of certified facilities. Certified facilities may advertise their status as provided in the Facility Certification Agreement and referenced publications. |
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| Unless instructed otherwise by the applicant, facility names and locations are made public on the ACC website. Other information is kept confidential and not shared with or sold to other parties. ACC may draw general statistics from the data for educational purposes, but the anonymity of specific information is maintained. |
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| 8. Maintain records and input traceability data. The certified farm shall maintain production records for each pond that include data on postlarvae, chemical use, effluent water quality and harvest as outlined in the Traceability section of the Guidelines for Standards. A portion of this data shall also be uploaded to an online traceability system that allows each processed lot to be traced back to its pond and inputs of origin. |
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| ACC currently uses a traceability system developed by TraceRegister, Inc. as an integral part of the online certification system. To participate in the traceability system, the farm shall pay a basic annual fee and an incremental fee for each registered traceability document. Farm facilities must participate in the TraceRegister program to be certified. |
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| 9. Recertify each year. BAP farm certification remains in effect for one year. For each successive year, farms shall pay an inspection fee of U.S. $3,000 prior to the evaluation inspection and a recertification fee of $1.00 per metric ton of catfish produced, with a minimum recertification fee of $500 and a maximum of $4,000, subject to the exceptions for small farms described in number 3 above. A farm has up to 60 days after the recertification date to complete recertification. |
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