Agraya, the organization behind the internationally recognized GLOBALG.A.P. standards and the GGN label, has joined the Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability (GDST) as a partner, reinforcing its commitment to strengthening traceability, transparency, and interoperability across global seafood supply chains.
The partnership reflects Agraya’s ongoing efforts to support digital solutions that complement certification and help the seafood sector respond to evolving market and regulatory expectations. By endorsing the GDST initiative, Agraya joins a global network of industry organizations, certification bodies, NGOs, and technology providers working toward a common approach to digital seafood traceability.
Why traceability matters
Seafood supply chains are among the most complex in the food sector. Products often move through multiple stages – from aquaculture farms or fishing vessels to processors, distributors, and retailers – crossing several countries before reaching consumers. This complexity makes end-to-end visibility challenging without a common approach to sharing information.
Robust traceability plays an increasingly important role in supporting supply chain integrity. It helps address risks such as illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and seafood fraud while strengthening confidence in claims relating to product origin, production methods, and sustainability. This transparency also supports consumer-facing initiatives such as the GGN label, which relies on credible traceability to substantiate claims about certified responsible farming.
Traceability is also becoming an essential component of regulatory compliance. Requirements such as the European Union’s IUU Regulation and the US Seafood Import Monitoring Program are driving greater demand for transparent and verifiable information throughout seafood supply chains.
A common language for digital traceability
The Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability is the seafood industry’s leading multi-stakeholder initiative for establishing a common digital traceability standard. Built on GS1 EPCIS data exchange principles, the GDST standard defines the key data elements that should be captured and exchanged throughout both wild-caught and aquaculture supply chains.
By enabling different digital systems to exchange information using a common framework, the standard helps improve interoperability across the supply chain. This reduces duplicate data requests, simplifies information sharing, and supports greater efficiency for producers, processors, buyers, and technology providers.
Strengthening certification through interoperability
Agraya’s endorsement of the GDST initiative reflects its commitment to making certification work seamlessly within a broader digital ecosystem.
GLOBALG.A.P. certification verifies that seafood has been produced according to internationally recognized requirements covering areas such as food safety, animal welfare, environmental responsibility, and social responsibility. The GDST Standard complements this by supporting the consistent exchange of traceability information throughout the supply chain. Together, certification and interoperable traceability help provide a more complete picture of a product’s journey.
Huw Thomas, Executive Director of the Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability, welcomed Agraya’s partnership: “Traceability is increasingly important for the global seafood industry as it is now recognized to provide more information related to food safety to buyers, consumers, governments, and civil society. Digitization continues to develop in our lives, and without digital data standardization the seafood industry will not be able to harness the real opportunities afforded through machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Agraya has long provided supply chain assurance to seafood buyers through its standards and traceability systems. As a partner in GDST, they are also contributing to the continuous improvement of the seafood industry and enhancing the assurance they already provide.”
Looking ahead
As expectations for transparency continue to grow, certification and digital traceability will play increasingly complementary roles in supporting responsible seafood production.
Commenting on the new partnership, Remko Oosterveld, Aquaculture Technical Expert at Agraya, added: “Traceability and transparency are key pillars of certification and a benchmark for integrity across the seafood industry. The Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability aims to set the standard for interoperable traceability, and Agraya is proud to endorse it as a GDST partner. By working alongside GDST and its partners, we strive for a shared traceability standard that benefits the entire supply chain and brings transparency from farm to fork.”
Related links
- Learn more about Agraya and what drives us
- Understand more about our impact areas and claims
- Learn more about joining the consumer-facing GGN label initiative for agriculture, aquaculture, and floriculture
