The first part of this report provides a theoretical overview of voluntary market-based labelling & certification focusing on schemes of greatest relevance to the major seafood commodity groups that are the focus of the PrimeFish project (Atlantic salmon, rainbow trout, European sea bass and gilthead sea bream, pangasius catfish, atlantic cod, atlantic herring).

In the second part of the report an evaluation is given on the role of sustainability certification in company strategic positioning based on a case study of the Global Salmon Initiative, an industry collaboration predicated on a commitment to 100% ASC certificationof all member sites by 2020. In this section we also examine interactions, cost/ benefits and areas of overlap between mandatory and major voluntary certification and recommendation schemes, and identify harmonization mechanisms/ equivalence criteria for voluntary and mandatory schemes with the aim of reducing costs to producers and improving overall compliance.

  Deliverable 3.3. Report on costs & benefits of compliance with voluntary market-based labelling & certifications schemes