Aquaculture Partnerships & Collaboration

We collaborate with others across the aquaculture industry to promote best practices and improve sustainability.

Partnership and collaboration

Cargill works with industry associations, nongovernmental organizations and researchers to share innovative approaches and raise sustainability standards across the aquaculture industry, including.

• Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC)
• Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA)
• Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP)
• IFFO Marine Ingredients Organization (formerly the International Fishmeal and Fish oil Organization)

Certification and accreditation

We attain and maintain certification and accreditation by internationally recognized fish and seafood farming and feed production standards, including:

• Global G.A.P. (Good Agricultural Practice)
• Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certification: Cargill’s feed mills and Honduras and Nicaragua achieved BAP Certification in 2015 – the first in the region – and now offer four-star, BAP-certified shrimp and tilapia feed to customers across Central America.
• Global Salmon Initiative (GSI)
• The Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS). Our salmon business sources soy products, primarily from Brazil, that are certified to ProTerra, RTRS or equivalent standards. We use soy products from other countries are proven to be responsibly sourced, including from suppliers with development programs in place to achieve credible third-party certification.
• ASC Feed Standards: ASC Feed Standards were launched in 2023, and Cargill is working towards achieving certification across a range of our feed mills to support our customers.  

We require that marine raw materials come from fisheries adhering to FAO’s Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, that they be non- IUU (illegal, unreported and unregulated), and that the fish species and country of fishing area is registered. We give preferential status to raw material produced according to the IFFO Responsible Supply (RS) Assured and Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) standard and suppliers supplying “Fish Source Score” data.

We are committed to sourcing terrestrial and marine raw material to meet the needs of customers certified to various performance standards, such as ASC, GlobalGap, Universal Feed Assurance Scheme (UFAS) and BAP.

 

ASC Feed Standard certification

The new Feed Standard from the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) builds on the organization’s established approach to responsible aquaculture and covers fish feed mills as well as ingredient suppliers. The standard aims to ensure that fish feed mills meet strict environmental and social requirements and use environmentally friendly raw materials. From October 2025 onward, ASC aquaculture farmers must use ASC-certified feed to maintain ASC certification for their salmon.

Cargill feed mills have previously supplied ASC-compliant feed to our ASC-certified farmers. We are now in the process of certifying our mills according to the new Feed Standard to continue to support our customers, including requirements for transparency for each unit of certification. Please find information for those units in each country below: