Brazilian Feed Scheme Signs Benchmarking Agreement with EUREPGAP

SINDIRAÇÕES, the Brazilian National Animal Feed Industry Association, signed the formal recognition agreement with EUREPGAP on 17 April 2007 in São Paulo, Brazil. After completing the benchmarking procedure among the first group af Compound Feed Manufacturers Standards, the Brazilian Feed Certification Scheme is the first organisation to sign the agreement to demonstrate that they intend to continue to follow the EUREPGAP requirements.

„We have been working towards this for the past two years, and are proud to achieve this milestone for harmonization for feed and food standards“, said Mario Sergio Cutait, President of SINDIRAÇÕES, at the IFIF Global Feed and Food conference in São Paulo, „The signature marks for us the beginning of a new era. As strong member of the Global Partnership for Safe and Sustainable Agriculture we want to contribute to its growth.“

For Kristian Moeller, Secretary EUREPGAP, the approval and commitment of SINDIRAÇÕES opens up lots of opportunities for the Brazilian livestock sector. Being able to buy EUREPGAP approved feed is an important component for farms achieving full EUREPGAP certification and demonstrating their ability to meet global customer demands for their meat products.

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 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.

Claudia Meifert

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