International certification group GlobalGAP has announced several new innovations during its annual summit, which this year takes place in Abu Dhabi on 27-29 October.
During the summit, delegates will discuss the proposed additions and modifications to be put forward for public consultation, as it revises the upcoming Version 5 of the GlobalGAP Integrated Farm Assurance Standard, which the organisation hopes to implement at the beginning of 2015.
These include additional microbial risk assessment criteria for fruit and vegetable production – a response to the numerous outbreaks in recent years of foodborne illnesses caused by microbial contamination.
Another key focus of the new version is on family farming and smallholder production, with the inclusion of a feature to cover contract growing for smallholder farmers with group certification.
'We are working on a new approach that makes it easier and more efficient for smallholders,' said Kristian Müller, GlobalGAP's managing director. 'GlobalGAP works for all farmers, no matter what their size.'
The new version would allow farms of under 100m2 to gain GlobalGAP certification at greatly reduced cost, with the aim of making it affordable for all.
It will equally propose workable solutions to assist farmers in dealing with water scarcity challenges, which are expected to grow in the years to come.
In addition, the introduction of a new standard for crops for processing addresses the needs of the food processing industry to facilitate the adoption of farm assurance certification in their production processes.
Meanwhile, GlobalGAP’s new chain of custody is designed to improve transparency and control mechanisms at both input and output channels at every stage of the supply chain.
The summit will also witness the signing of the Declaration of Abu Dhabi, which has as its goal to bring together public and private partners to implement good agricultural practices and increase food security sustainably.
'We currently have around 30 signatories,' said Müller, 'including Morissons, Asda, Metro, Nestle and Unilever. 'The UAE government has also agreed to sign it. This would bring huge harmonisation. We want everybody to use this standard.'
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