Greece-based Nireus and Turkish-owned Sursan became the first Mediterranean fish farming companies certified by the new Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) standard for seabass, seabream and meagre.

Two of Nireus's farms were certified, one in Aliveri, located in southern Evia and one in Fokida, located in western Greece. The two certified Sursan-operated farms are in Bodrum.

The new ASC standard for the species launched in Sept. 2018 drove nearly 30 seabass, seabream, and meagre farms in Turkey, Greece, Spain, Croatia and Albania to undergo audits.

Nireus, with help of retailer AB Vassilopoulos, a member of Ahold-Delhaize group, and WWF Greece applied for the certification in March.

Nireus sells around 1.5 million fish weekly to over 30 countries around the world and will soon merge with Selonda into Andromeda as an act of survival against Turkish competition.

The two companies, Nireus and Selonda, are in the process of selling assets to meet requirements from the European Commission, which allowed the acquisition on the condition that production capacity of 10,000 metric tons of fish and 50 million fry is sold prior to the merger.

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Listen to the latest episode of the IntraFish podcast discussing the struggles facing the seabass and seabream sector, here:

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Aquaculture

Turkish, Greek farms nab first seabass, seabream ASC stamp