Alison Hutchins was previously Farming Director at the UK's largest trout producer, Dawnfresh Farming Ltd.
Photo: ASC
The Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) has named Alison Hutchins as its new Producer Engagement Director, a position the organisation says has been created to reinforce its work with farming companies worldwide.
Hutchins has worked at ASC since 2022, most recently as Director of Innovation. According to the organisation, she brings more than two decades of aquaculture experience to the role, having previously served as Farming Director at Dawnfresh Farming Ltd, the United Kingdom’s largest trout producer. Her earlier career included roles with SEPA, The Scottish Salmon Company and Marine Harvest, now Mowi.
ASC states that Hutchins will now focus on strengthening relationships with producers and supporting them through the two-year transition phase for the ASC Farm Standard, launched earlier this year. The post will also include responsibility for outreach in the United Kingdom.
Setting out her priorities, Hutchins said: “Engaging producers effectively around the world is central to our success. My focus is on developing and delivering our global producer engagement strategy that aligns with our organisational goals."
“I’ll also be leading on managing relationships with producers at a level and ensuring strong coordination across teams to deliver consistent support for key accounts. It’s essential that producer perspectives are fully integrated into programme development, and that market needs and messages are clearly understood and communicated."
Hutchins will also oversee the producer engagement team and contribute to the rollout of Farm and Feed certification. The team includes Laetitia Rosing, who covers the Nordic region, Koji Yamamoto in Southeast Asia and Marcos Moya, who works across the Mediterranean, Latin America and India.
ASC’s Chief Technical Officer, Ally Dingwall, said producers remain “at the heart of the ASC mission to drive environmental and social responsibility in aquaculture.” He added that Hutchins’ leadership will play an important role in “deepening engagement and ensuring producers are well supported” as the organisation advances its standards and seeks to maintain programme integrity.
The Aquaculture Stewardship Council recently reported that in 2024, the number of ASC-certified farms grew by 10% and ASC-labelled products by 12%, in addition to an upsurge of 32% in sales of seafood carrying the ecolabel.
ASC-certified feed is now mandatory across all certified farms, after the extended transition period for producers to make the switch to ASC-compliant feed ended in October 2025. In recent weeks, several feed manufacturers have announced they have secured ASC certification for individual feed mills, including BioMar, Alltech and Skretting.