A new version of GlobalGAP, the world’s leading farm assurance program, came into effect on July 1 with two new crop-based control points that ensure produce traceability and compliance with Intellectual Property (IP) laws.
Since 1999 GlobalGAP, an independent certification system for Good Agricultural Practice (GAP), has been translating consumer requirements into standard for safe and sustainable food production, in a growing list of countries across the world.
For the first time, the newly released GlobalGAP 5.0 includes two control points on registered varieties and compliance with IP rights on varieties.
“The two crop-based control points are very important to our sector. From now on, processors and retailers who want to ensure the full respect of IP rights in their sourcing have an easy instrument to check compliance. No other scheme is needed, and only active inspection of the two GlobalGAP control points would suffice,” says Garlich Von Essen, ESA Secretary General.
The GlobalGAP scheme is intended for fresh products and therefore of particular importance to vegetables and potatoes. “This is an important addition to GlobalGAP to ensure legitimacy of sources for vegetables and potatoes. It also shows guarantees that are provided by plant breeding companies as for instance identity of varieties and certification of mother plants.
“ESA, the voice of the seed sector in Europe, is instrumental in pushing good regulation and policymaking. Our final goal is to make sure that consumers get good quality food. And we have to keep in mind that it all starts with a seed,” he adds.
