EurepGAP has appointed Dr Johannes Kern as the observer for Africa in the EurepGAP sector committees, for an initial period until December 2008.

The role is expected to provide technical support to EurepGAP members in developing nations, with Kern also expected to play the part of smallholder ambassador by further facilitating compliance of smallholder farms to the food-safety standard.

EurepGAP chairman Nigel Garbutt said: “We are delighted that in collaboration with the Department for International Development (DFID) and GTZ, the international co-operation enterprise for sustainable development, we have been able to appoint Dr Kern, who has many years of experience working with standards implementation in developing countries.

Kern will operate in a largely independent capacity, according to Garbutt, linking with key stakeholders and contributing to the standard-setting process. He will be involved in establishing new frameworks for best practice in smallholder certification. “This will make the system more cost effective by developing the group certification model, as well as harmonising the approaches in Africa with our smallholder schemes operating in Latin America and Asia,” said Garbutt.