Members of a task force that will develop organic seafood standards for the U.S. Department of Agriculture should be named by the end of this month, says a member of working group advising the agency on how best to proceed with a process for putting the organic protocols in place.

”The Aquatic Animal Task Force should be formed before [the] end of March,” Richard Nelson, co-chairman of the National Organic Aquaculture Working Group and vice president of purchasing for Utah-based fish feed company Nelson & Sons, told IntraFish on Monday.

Nelson says there were many applications for the task force from people in the aquaculture sector, but not so many from those on the wild seafood side. One of the questions the task force will tackle is whether wild-caught seafood can be certified as organic.

Members of the working group are not taking part in the task force selection process, but Nelson did say the group “encouraged a healthy and highly professional representation on the task force.”

The working group is expected to present its proposed standards to the USDA National Organic Program (NOP) sometime in April, Nelson said.

One of those who applied to be on the task force is Eddy Daniel, vice president of manufacturing at Florida-based Ocean Boy Farms, which is one of two U.S.-based companies certified to call its shrimp organic under USDA livestock rules (shrimp has been classified as livestock since the 1940s by USDA).

Ironically, the company doesn’t use the USDA organic logo on its products even though it can, since some people may still complain and call it unfair since there are no true organic standards for seafood. Besides, as Daniel told IntraFish the company’s customers know how the shrimp is grown and, because of that, OceanBoy can charge a premium price for it without the logo.

“We want to comply with the USDA and we believe we have right to use the logo. But it makes no sense trying to fight to use the logo when we already have customers lined up,” he said. “Our customers have visited our plant, visited our farm and see we are following standards. We are doing very well with our product as organic, getting the price we should be getting, so it’s not really affecting us. But I don’t want to say it doesn’t matter.”

Daniel says OceanBoy Farms could be an example to the task force as it tries to configure rules for what constitutes organic since the company has expended considerable money and effort to design systems.

”We do want to participate. We will help in setting up standards since we already have a system established as far as our shrimp and tilapia are concerned,” Daniel said. “We can help the industry in setting up standards and resolve issues.”

The task force will get more done faster if it works at establishing different standards for shrimp, fish and differentiates between farm-raised and wild-caught products, Daniel said.

The task force should start with setting shrimp standards, since most people seem interested in growing organic shrimp, then move to fish species where people have expressed interest in selling product with an organic seal, such as tilapia.

If the task force works at it they should be able to get standards by the end of this year, as there already is a model, he said, as the working group already has set up proposed standards for the USDA task force to start with.

“Start with the livestock standards, apply it to shrimp and fish, and from that make some additions, make some adjustments that are specific to shrimp, specific to fish,” Daniel said.

It makes no sense to lump all seafood together, since they use different feeds and are grown in different ways.

“Attack one item at a time. Do shrimp first, do fish, do ordered species,” he said. “If nobody is interested in a certain group there is no need to waste time to set up standards for a species no one is interested in and leave shrimp and fish behind. If the members do this and put in the time, they will get it done.” The change to Mike Johans as secretary of agriculture also should help the process of establishing organic standards, given the confusion that arose under former secretary Ann Veneman, who last year rescinded an order from the NOP that said companies like OceanBoy could not declare their shrimp organic.

“I think the change is good. There were a lot of controversies while Veneman was there. It created an environment where we needed new blood, not because of anything good or bad, but because new blood can be effective,” Daniel said. “Some people misunderstood her, so I think it became almost impossible to govern as far as organic was concerned.”

OceanBoy sold 1 million pounds of organic white shrimp last year, expects to sell between 2 million and 3 million pounds this year and wants to be growing 10 million pounds by 2008.

Daniel doesn’t worry about other farms getting into organic shrimp once standards are set, since they will have to spend millions of dollars to buy the proper equipment and create the right environment to grow shrimp, something his company already has done.

“The standards are very tough to meet. Also, it’s a big investment to get to a point where you can make 10 million pounds of organic shrimp,” he said. “People mostly are not waiting for standards, they mostly are waiting for customers.

"If you are going invest so many millions of dollars don’t now where the customers are, that is a problem, more so than organic standards. You need knowledge, you need technology on top of the money; money alone is not going to do it. You need all these things put together.”

Shrimp producer: USDA needs to take organic seafood standards one species at a time