A collaboration with the Aquaculture Stewardship Council

In December, 2010, the MSC’s Board of Trustees agreed that the MSC should develop partnerships with other standard setters where appropriate to add efficiency to supply chains.

One such organisation is the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), which was founded in 2009 by WWF and IDH (Dutch Sustainable Trade Initiative) to manage the global standards for responsible aquaculture.

MSC/ASC chain of custody partnership to improve supply chain efficiency

The MSC is working with the ASC to provide a chain of custody solution for their certification program, and to provide and administer their ecolabel licensing function. Although this is an important collaboration, the ASC remains a separate organisation that will use a different ecolabel.

MSC is guided by three key principles in this work:

• Efficiency: The MSC is working on joint solutions with the ASC that will deliver greater efficiency for supply chain partners.

• Replicability: The MSC is working in a non-exclusive partnership and we are keen to develop a solution that has wider applicability.
• Independence: The MSC is still an independent wild capture sustainability standard setter and is not endorsing the ASC's claim in the marketplace, and vice versa.

Longer term, the MSC envisages working with other relevant organisations to increase efficiencies in supply chains.

MSC/ASC chain of custody collaboration

ASC's chain of custody requirements will sit within MSC's certification requirements, and their clients will be assessed against MSC’s CoC Standard.

Clients will receive a separate certificate for ASC, but if also certified for MSC, will have their audits at the same time. 

Next Steps

The MSC certification requirements, issued on 10 January 2012, accommodate chain of custody certification of businesses handling ASC certified products. From this date, certifiers will be able to apply to extend their scope of accreditation to certify businesses handling ASC certified products. These businesses can then apply to the certifiers to extend their scope of certification to include ASC certified products. MSC will also continue to develop our internal systems and communications materials to facilitate the addition to our program. 

Ecolabel Licensing services for ASC

Marine Stewardship Council International (MSCI) will be administering ASC’s ecolabel licensing function, including handling the signing of license agreements and product approvals for companies wishing to use the ASC ecolabel on products. This approach will mean that MSC licensees will already be familiar with the process to seek product approval and report on sales of labelled products.

For further information please contact productintegrityteam@msc.org