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This innovation is enabled by the Wholechain traceability system and has been designed in collaboration with Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) with the goal of enabling real time data monitoring for this certification.
The Switzerland-based company, a world leader in premium tilapia, grows tilapia in floating pens in lakes. Its farms and processing facilities located in Mexico, Honduras and Indonesia are all BAP certified. Regal Springs partnered with the Global Seafood Alliance (GSA), which owns the BAP program, and Wholechain to launch the traceability integration, bringing unprecedented transparency and verification to sustainability claims in farmed tilapia. Regal Springs’ traceability is further enhanced due to Wholechain’s integration with the Mastercard Provenance Solution, a global blockchain-based solution which enables verifiable records of all traceability events.
The purpose of the traceability system is to bring more visibility to the origins of Regal Springs’ tilapia and to the standards to which the company’s farms and processing plants are held. BAP-certified farms and processing plants are audited annually by a third-party auditor and held to high standards for environmental responsibility, social accountability, food safety, and animal health and welfare.
Regal Springs, GSA and Wholechain initiated this collaboration with the Full Circle Market private label brand of tilapia available at grocery stores across the United States with QR codes that consumers scan to learn about their quality standards as well as their social responsibility and sustainability practices.
“As a vertically integrated producer, traceability is in our DNA and we are excited about this collaboration,” said Edward Kiger, managing director of Regal Springs Trading.
“We commend Regal Springs, Wholechain and Mastercard for collaborating with us on a project that will lead to more visibility in the seafood supply chain, which our retail and foodservice partners as well as consumers are asking for,” said GSA COO Brian Perkins. “This has the potential to be a game changer on the traceability front.”
“The convergence of technology enablers such as blockchain with the complexities of modern supply chains creates opportunities for traceability, building trust and streamlining operations for parties,” said Deborah Barta, senior VP of provenance and strategy for Mastercard. “In partnership with Regal Springs, GSA and Wholechain, the industry-agnostic Mastercard Provenance Solution supports ESG certifications, enabling the verification of sustainability claims in farmed tilapia with end-to-end visibility.”
Feed Forward, a food impact agency based in New York City, is a key partner to Wholechain in connecting these products to neighborhood grocers and our communities. As an added benefit to the sales of these products in grocers like Lincoln Markets, a percentage will go back to Feed Forward’s More Than a Meal program. More Than a Meal supports local communities impacted by food insecurity through a simple tech-backed platform that matches individuals and families with meals and groceries in their neighborhoods.
Lincoln Market supermarkets based in New York City will be the first in the state of New York to carry the tilapia, in addition to the whole Full Circle Market product line of fully traceable sustainable seafood, starting in late November. “We always focus on quality for our customers. Knowing that this product is of the highest quality and is backed by end-to-end visibility for us and our consumers, while simultaneously giving back to our community via the More Than A Meal program, is a homerunk and we can’t wait to get started,” said Khalil A., store manager for Lincoln Market.
“This initiative is a prime example of the impact that we have set out to do as an organization. Our communities are receiving quality products, traceability information and education about the product, while also supporting their neighbors in need. Like the name on the package states, it truly is full circle,” said Liz Peralta Foxwell, co-founder and VP of impact for Feed Forward.
“Best Aquaculture Practices is a third-party certification program developed by the Global Seafood Alliance, an international, nonprofit trade association, dedicated to advancing environmentally and socially responsible seafood practices through education, advocacy, and third-party assurances.“
Regal Springs, for their part, is the largest vertically integrated white fish farming producer in the world. The company operates Responsible Aquaculture and Processing in Indonesia, Honduras and Mexico and is famous for producing Premium all-natural Tilapia.
