The Asian Seafood Improvement Collaborative (ASIC)

The Asian Seafood Improvement Collaborative (ASIC) is an inclusive stakeholder engagement platform where Asian seafood industry stakeholders can work together to build locally and internationally relevant tools and solutions to improve seafood production on key species that have been struggling with their social and environmental performance. The ASIC idea came out of projects that were initiated by USAID which succeeded in getting stakeholders to the table to develop tools and approaches that work for fisheries and aquaculture in Asia. ASIC provides local/regional ownership and creates incentives to build locally based tools that are more likely to lead to successful implementation. The ASIC idea combines regional stakeholder advice and decision making, science-based solutions, funding, communications, marketing, etc. efforts under one umbrella to become the Asian private sector stakeholder voice to the various export markets, donor agencies, and regional governments. The ASIC platform will create opportunities for companies attempting to disrupt existing seafood business models to more directly link producers and buyers through a trusted, data driven platform that integrates the supply chain service providers and the financial industry.