Open Consultations
No open consultations at this time.
Recent Closed Consultations
RFM Joint Chain of Custody Standard Public Comment Period Open – October 14, 2021 — November 12, 2021 — NOW CLOSED.
Iceland Responsible Fisheries Foundation (IRFF) and the Certified Seafood Collaborative (CSC, Alaska) on behalf of their members and their respective fishing communities, are pleased to announce that the RFM Chain of Custody Standard is now available for 30-day public and stakeholder comment period.
The present Chain of Custody Standard was drafted in the beginning of 2021. The Standard has been revised and approved by the IRFF technical committee and the CSC technical committee. It is intended for application in RFM certification programs, including those currently under development.
Instructions for the Submission of Comments
The CSC and IRFF value all stakeholder input and will take into consideration all relevant comments before releasing the final version of the RFM Chain of Custody Standard. We invite any interested party, who may wish to make a constructive and specific comment on the Standard, to do so within the period of October 14, 2021 – November 12, 2021 and in accordance with the following format and instructions.
- Access the draft RFM Chain of Custody Standard here
- Unattributed comments (without name, address and contact e-mail) will not be considered.
- Only one submission per organization should be made and must be attributable to a principal contact person that represents that organization.
- Comments cannot represent the views of more than a single organization. Comments received pertaining to the views of more than one organization will not be considered.
- Comments must specifically state the Section and clause(s) of the Joint Chain of Custody Standard of interest in order to be eligible for consideration.
- All comments can be emailed to rfm@rfmcertification.org
The IRFF and CSC technical committees will separately, but in cooperation and coordination, consider all comments based on their content and objectiveness. Individual written responses to the comments will not be provided. Instead, a summary of substantive comments received will be made publicly available in a non-attributable form.
Background information
Iceland took the initiative to develop the original version of this Standard, which was presented for public and stakeholder comment, and subsequently adopted for certification in 2011. The standard framework was used in cooperative fashion by Iceland Responsible Fisheries Management and Alaska Responsible Fisheries Management, allowing both programs to introduce minor but meaningful modifications.
This Joint Chain of Custody Standard can be used by any RFM program, either existing or currently in development, greatly enhancing its usability and providing opportunities to offer more certified products to customers. Once Certification Bodies are accredited and trained to the Standard, they will be able to perform audits for any of the participating standard owners. Audit fatigue will be reduced, and market recognition will be advanced.