Partners from the public and private sectors have come together in the UAE to launch the Declaration of Abu Dhabi, a call for global collaboration to make it easier, more cost effective and more attractive for farmers worldwide to adopt safe, responsible and sustainable production practices.
The Declaration has been initiated by GlobalGAP, the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform and the International Trade Centre (ITC) in response to growing global food security challenges.
A number of companies and organisations have already signed the Declaration, including Unilever, Metro, Nestlé, the Association of Belgian Horticultural Cooperatives (VBT), GS1, the Sustainability Consortium and LEAF, with others, not least the UAE government, set to sign up during the current GlobalGAP Summit in Abu Dhabi.
The goal is to make markets more accessible for farmers, while reducing poverty and malnutrition. Signatories agree to develop a common set of good agricultural practices, a system for uniquely identifying every farm that is recognised by all stakeholders and a mechanism for securing the commitment of supply chain partners.
'All farms need to be traceable,' said Kristian Müller, GlobalGAP's managing director, 'and we need a way of identifying every farm that is certified. This will avoid double entries and double standards.'
Puvan Selvanathan, head of food and agriculture at the UN Global Compact, commented: 'The UN Global Compact is fully committed to collaborating with the Declaration of Abu Dhabi. We want to ensure alignment. We want to avoid duplication of efforts. And we want to maximise our collective impact.'
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