GLOBALG.A.P. has announced a new push for international collaboration to reduce the cost of certification by enabling combined audits and connecting various databases.
"There is still far too much duplication of audit standards on fruit and vegetable farms. Collaboration is the fastest way to reduce them," explained Guy Callebaut, Vice-Chairman of the Board VBT/BelOrta, Grower, and GLOBALG.A.P. Chairman of the Board, at the annual Fruit Logistica news conference in Berlin. "We are proud to present today a number of organizations with whom we were able to create sustainable, mutually advantageous partnerships that also benefit farmers. We will increase our efforts and extend our invitation to cooperate with more global and local systems as well as market players looking for efficient and effective mainstream solutions. As a partner we offer a global solution for farm assurance that is applicable to all farm sizes, with no ambition of competing with consumer-facing labels, downstream supply chain partners, or government audit systems."
GLOBALG.A.P. has recently teamed up with LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming), Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN), launched a joint initiative (The Declaration of Abu Dhabi) together with the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) platform and the International Trade Centre (ITC), and entered into partnerships with UNIVEG as well as REWE International AG. These were the first steps undertaken in 2014 to counteract the ever growing number of duplicate audits around the world and to increase the incentives for farmers to adopt safe and sustainable production methods, which will be followed by further new partnership initiatives in the coming years.
"There is still far too much duplication of audit standards on fruit and vegetable farms. Collaboration is the fastest way to reduce them," explained Guy Callebaut, Vice-Chairman of the Board VBT/BelOrta, Grower, and GLOBALG.A.P. Chairman of the Board, at the annual Fruit Logistica news conference in Berlin. "We are proud to present today a number of organizations with whom we were able to create sustainable, mutually advantageous partnerships that also benefit farmers. We will increase our efforts and extend our invitation to cooperate with more global and local systems as well as market players looking for efficient and effective mainstream solutions. As a partner we offer a global solution for farm assurance that is applicable to all farm sizes, with no ambition of competing with consumer-facing labels, downstream supply chain partners, or government audit systems."
GLOBALG.A.P. has recently teamed up with LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming), Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN), launched a joint initiative (The Declaration of Abu Dhabi) together with the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) platform and the International Trade Centre (ITC), and entered into partnerships with UNIVEG as well as REWE International AG. These were the first steps undertaken in 2014 to counteract the ever growing number of duplicate audits around the world and to increase the incentives for farmers to adopt safe and sustainable production methods, which will be followed by further new partnership initiatives in the coming years.
