Mowi Scotland now has 29 ASC-certified sites

Salmon farmer Mowi Scotland has added two further sites to its list of farms accredited by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), which the company regards as the premier fish farming certification body.

The company’s sites at Marulaig Bay and Scalpay have both been certified, and Marulaig Bay also received certification for its organic salmon.

Mowi Scotland now has 29 ASC-certified farms, around half its sites in Scotland.

Virtually all of its ASC sites have been accredited within the last four years.

Rule changes

Until July 2019, Mowi Scotland’s practice of growing around half of its smolts in freshwater loch sites made ASC certification of marine sites impossible because the ASC’s Salmon Standard required smolts to be raised in on-land facilities.

That changed following a revision of the ASC’s Salmon Standard and Freshwater Trout Standard, which resolved inconsistencies between the two and meant all freshwater salmonid farming, including salmon smolt production, would be audited against the Freshwater Trout Standard.