EUREPGAP Launches 3rd Version of its Good Agricultural Practice Standard

After two years of intensive stakeholder discussions EUREPGAP has published the 3rd version of its Good Agricultural Practice standard on the 8th February 2007. More than 500 experts ranging from producers, traders, retailers, governmental and non-governmental organisations from 56 countries have provided proposals, comments and suggestions for the new version.

In a major step forward EUREPGAP has harmonised its criteria for food safety, environmental and worker protection across major product areas. There is now one GAP standard integrating common elements from each sector, with major product areas being served by specific industry modules such as Fruit and Vegetables, Combinable crops or Salmon.

Feedback from nearly 10 years of working with the standard has been incorporated to make the standard more relevant to today’s concerns and advanced production techniques. For example in the Crop scopes, Integrated Crop Management has a stronger emphasis in the 2007 version, with a focus on showing commitment to Integrated Pest Management practices such as Prevention, Observation and Monitoring and the use of responsible Crop Protection intervention strategies.

The vital area of Worker Health and Safety has also been subject to continuous improvement including its application to smallholders in developing countries.

Nigel Garbutt, Chairman of EUREPGAP said “What has been gratifying about this revision process is how EUREPGAP members have reached out to their wider stakeholder group to make this a truly relevant global standard for safe and sustainable agriculture.

I want to thank all those involved for their considerable commitment to this revision and we look forward to continuing and building these important relations for the future”

EUREPGAP is a private sector body that sets voluntary standards for the certification of agricultural products around the globe.

EUREPGAP is an equal partnership of agricultural producers and retailers which want to establish certification standards and procedures for Good Agricultural Practices (GAP).

EUREPGAP is a pre-farm-gate-standard that means the certificate covers the process of the certified product from before the seed is planted until it leaves the farm. EUREPGAP is a business-to-business label and is therefore not directly visible for the consumers.

EUREPGAP is a set of normative documents. These documents cover the EurepGAP General Regulations, the EUREPGAP Control Points and Compliance Criteria and the EUREPGAP Checklist.

The EUREPGAP standard is primarily designed to maintain consumer confidence in food quality and food safety. Other important goals are to minimize detrimental environmental impacts of farming operations, optimize the use of inputs and to ensure a responsible approach to worker health and safety.

EUREPGAP members include retailers, producers/farmers and associate members from the input and service side of agriculture. Governance is by a Board which is chaired by an independent Chairperson. The Board also agrees on the activity plan of the organisation. Sector Committees discuss and decide upon product and sector specific issues. All committees have 50% retailer and 50% producer/supplier representation and hereby creating an efficient partnership. The work of the Committees is supported by FoodPLUS, a not for profit limited company based in Cologne, Germany, fulfilling a secretariat function for EUREPGAP.

The Executive Management of Foodplus GmbH, i.e. its Managing Director, signs responsible for the implementation of Policies and Standards. Financial and legal ownership and responsability for FoodPLUS GmbH holds the EHI Retail Institute via its 100% Subsidiary EHI-Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH. The EHI Retail Institute also operates the European Retail Academy, a global network of Research Institutes linked to retail activities and topics.
EUREPGAP started in 1997 as an initiative by retailers belonging to the Euro-Retailer Produce Working Group (EUREP). British retailers in conjunction with supermarkets in continental Europe were the driving forces. They reacted on growing concerns by the consumers with product safety, environmental and labor standards and decided to take more responsibility for what happened in the supply chain. On the other side the development of common certification standards were also in the interest of many producers. Those with contractual relations to several retailers complained that they had to undergo multiple audits against different criteria every year. On this background EUREP started to work on harmonized standards and procedures for the development of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) in conventional agriculture.

EUREPGAP c/o FoodPLUS GmbH, Spichernstr. 55, 50672 Koeln, Germany
Koeln HRB 35211, Managing Director Dr. Kristian Moeller

contact: Claudia Meifert
Tel: +49 (0) 2 21-5 79 93-82; Fax: -89
www.eurepgap.org - mailto:meifert@foodplus.org

The Global Partnership for Safe and Sustainable Agriculture

This release was published on openPR.