This week, Aquamar S.A. spread Christmas joy by sponsoring a Christmas celebration at a local school in Taura, Ecuador.  At the event, Aquamar's employees collaborated with the schoolteachers to serve delicious holiday treats, hand out gift bags and personalized Christmas presents to children ages 5 to 13.

Produmar S.A. gave many children in the neighboring community toys this holiday season with the help of the IESS Hospital.  The kids' ages ranged from less than one year to 8 years old.  Both events were full of smiles and Christmas cheer!

Last week Craig Appleyard and Ingrid Wisell traveled to Arlington, Virginia for the 2010 Sustainability Summit.  At the summit, Craig met with the Sustainable Seafood Working Group (SSWG), "It is very encouraging to see members of the environmental, retail and vendor community working together towards a shared goal: sustainability."  The conference emphasized that sustainability is not optional, but a necessity. 

Ingrid realized the importance of clearly communicating to our customers our sustainability efforts at the farm and plant levels so that they, in turn, can educate their seafood counter associates.  She came away enthusiastic and with many ideas for creating marketing materials to be used by customers.

Attendees of the summit included retailers, manufactures, government and advocacy groups with the common goal of practicing environmentally responsible business.

Tropical, faithful to its principles for continuous improvement and education, sent Luis Andrade, Project Manager of Food Safety and Environmental Standards Assistant, as a delegate to the Aquaculture Based Workshops in Cartagena, Colombia last month, hosted by GlobalG.A.P.

Attendees learned about how the GLOBALG.A.P. certification system works, how to implement the standard requirements and the improvements made to the standard which will be in place in January 2011 as Version 4.

  Additionally, the workshop provided training regarding the International Standards for Responsible Tilapia Aquaculture (ISRTA) certification, which was developed by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) earlier this year. Two of our farms will be audited against this standard at the end of the month in order to obtain a letter of compliance. When the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), the certifying body for this standard, is formed in the first part of 2011, the farms will receive this certification.

Andrade said that the training cleared up many doubts he had about the new ISRTA standard and the Global.G.A.P. version update. Certifications are a key element for the continuous improvement of the systems implemented at our tilapia farms.

At the end of last month, we participated in Vermont's Best Chefs event at the Paramount Theater in Rutland, Vermont, where 3 of Vermont's finest chefs prepared a meal, live, on stage.  The aromas wafting from the stage left everyone hungry and eager to try the various vendor samples.

In the hour proceeding the event and during intermission, Mary Nagel, Director of Sales; Dana Zawacki, Sales Representative and Ingrid Wisell, Executive Coordinator had the opportunity to serve over 700 food lovers tilapia samples prepared by Best Moon Catering in two delicious presentations: Tandoori Marinated Tilapia with Mango Salsa and Tilapia with Chili Butter.   Although the evening was cold, the lobby of the theater was kept warm with hundreds of people trying new foods and sharing in their culinary interests.

"As always, our tilapia was received with delight by the audience", said Mary. "The new recipes really 'wowed ' the crowd, it was great!" We were pleased by the invitation to participate in this community event and hope to be part of many more.