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The increasing market volume of aquatic products is accused for causing overfishing as well as polluting and destruction of the environment in many parts of the world. Fish as well as seafood products are known for high levels of antibiotica, PCB´s, residues of pesticides and heavy metals. Aquaculture, the farming of fish, shellfish, and other aquatic animals and plants, could possibly be a solution. However, in many countries the legal framework for aquaculture is quite underdeveloped and not sufficient to protect the environment against impacts from intense production systems. Most aquatic products are highly perishable and therefore very demanding with respect of quality assurance.
To keep the customer from loosing trust into aquatic products it is necessary to provide reliable information on provenance and quality of production. Public accessible standards with easy recognisable labels have to be developed and maintained to facilitate the decision at the counter. Credibility of standards and labels has to be built up and maintained by a sound quality system.

World-wide standards are in development by national and private bodies to define sustainable aquaculture and capture of wild fish. Organic farmers associations have extended their standard for land based production and developed guidelines for organic aquaculture.

E.g Naturland e.V., a German association, Bio Suisse in Switzerland and Soil Association in the UK.
From 1st of January 2009 for the first time the new EU Regulation (EC) No 834/ 2007 (former Regulation (EC) No 2092/91) includes aquaculture products. Every operator who plans to sell his products as "organic"  already certified acc. to private label organic standards (e.g. Naturland, Bio Suisse, Soil Association, Debio, etc.) has to request an additional obligatory inspection and certification acc. to the new EU Regulation.
Also standards for good practice in aquaculture (GAP) are in development. GLOBALGAP as an example for a business to business label from the retail and food service sector aims on enhancing sustainability and food security. By placing the AquaGAP label on products, quality seafood from all regions can be recognised by importers/retailers and most importantly, the final customer.
MSC (Marine Stewardship Council), an independent, global, non-profit organisation based in London, holds the most popular standard for wild caught fish and shellfish. At the center of the MSC is a set of Principles and Criteria for sustainable fishing which are used as a standard in a third party, independent and voluntary certification programme.
The certifiers work in co-operation with independent control bodies experienced in quality assurance to guarantee the implementation and credibility of their label.

Already years ago IMO started activities as control body in the aquaculture sector. IMO contributes in the establishing of projects adhering to the standard of Naturland e.V. IMO developed specific control systems for fisheries. The co-operation between Naturland e.V. and IMO in the aquaculture sector is still vital and fruitful.
The special IMO Group structure with local offices and representatives in various countries allows adequate inspection service worldwide for the entire supply chain from the fishery to the consumer. We offer inspection service in analogy to Regulation (EC) 834/2007 and based on private aquaculture standards.

List of activities:

• The organic market for Aquaculture products is not yet regulated in most of the countries. Hence IMO offers control and certification of production and processing activities in analogy to regulation EC N° 834/2007 as well as the Swiss Ordinance on Organic Farming.
  
• IMO as control and certification agency co-operates with several private label organisations respectively certification bodies (e.g. NATURLAND, BIO SUISSE)
  
• Inspection of fish feed mills (trout, salmon, shrimps).
  
• 45 producers, 70 processors are controlled by IMO world-wide.
  
• Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Ireland, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Brazil, Vietnam, Spain.
  
• Main species: pond culture of shrimp, salmon, trout and carps in pond culture, mussels in marine culture.
  
• IMO issues certificates of inspections (CI, Kontrollbescheinigungen).
  
• Pilot projects in co-operation with Naturland e.V., development of specific inspection systems for aquaculture operations.