GLOBALG.A.P. was recently approved as an ISEAL Community
Member following a months-long qualification process.
ISEAL supports ambitious sustainability systems to tackle the world’s most pressing
challenges. With its growing global network and focus on credible practices, ISEAL drives impact
and makes markets a force for good. “GLOBALG.A.P. is proud to have achieved ISEAL Community Member
status, and to have gained an important partner in ISEAL,” said Dr. Kristian Moeller, Managing
Director at GLOBALG.A.P. “This is a further step on our important mission towards broader
sustainability recognition. We are delighted that our long-standing commitment to sustainability is
bearing fruit.”
GLOBALG.A.P. will be collaborating with other well-known
ISEAL Community Membersand their sustainability systems from industries as diverse as aluminum,
golf, cotton, tourism, and fishing, to cope with the biggest environmental problems. “As a new
ISEAL Community Member, we look forward to continuously improving our system and further enhancing
our solutions by participating in ISEAL’s learning, collaboration, and innovation activities,” said
Dr. Moeller.
“I would like to congratulate GLOBALG.A.P. on becoming an
ISEAL Community Member,” said Karin Kreider, Executive Director of ISEAL. “This exciting step
reflects GLOBALG.A.P.’s commitment to ongoing improvement and deepening their credible practices as
they work to improve food safety on farms across the globe, while safeguarding the welfare of
farming communities and their surrounding environments.”
GLOBALG.A.P.’s trusted farm assurance solutions have
included a major sustainability component since they were first developed over 25 years ago. The
company will now lend valuable support to the global sustainability efforts of fellow ISEAL
Community Member systems by contributing decisive input and know-how gained from those decades of
experience in sustainability. Becoming an ISEAL Community Member further highlights GLOBALG.A.P.’s
dedication to sustainability, and signals GLOBALG.A.P.’s commitment to continuous improvement
through the special insights, support, and collaboration opportunities available to ISEAL Community
Members.
To qualify as an ISEAL Community Member, GLOBALG.A.P.
conducted a self-assessed gap analysis against the desired outcomes of the ISEAL Standard-Setting,
Assurance, and Impacts Codes, and drafted an improvement plan defining objectives and areas that
need special attention. GLOBALG.A.P. is also developing a monitoring and evaluation system, which
will play an important role as GLOBALG.A.P. takes the next steps toward achieving ISEAL Code
Compliant status.
This new membership closely follows the publication of
version 6 of GLOBALG.A.P.’s flagship Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA) standard. IFA v6 gives
environmental sustainability greater visibility by encouraging the continuous improvement of
sustainability practices among participating producers and by adding more sustainability-oriented
principles and criteria to the standard. The food safety and aquaculture aspects of IFA v6 have
already achieved GFSI (Global Food Safety Initiative) and GSSI (Global Sustainable Seafood
Initiative) recognition, respectively. GLOBALG.A.P. is the first GFSI- and GSSI-recognized farm
assurance system in the industry to achieve ISEAL Community Member status. "We welcome
GLOBALG.A.P.'s commitment to ISEAL's ambitious requirements as a global industry standard. It
underlines the efforts to continuously develop also in the field of sustainability as a recognized
system - for the major environmental and social challenges in global supply chains this is an
important step," emphasizes Eugenio Guidoccio, Member of the Executive Board, REWE Group.
GLOBALG.A.P. expects to deliver additional value to stakeholders by improving the system’s effectiveness with ISEAL’s guidance. Seeking and achieving ISEAL Community Member status also lends value to GLOBALG.A.P.’s assurance products – including the consumer-facing GGN label – by adding further tangible evidence of GLOBALG.A.P.’s ongoing investment in the development of effective sustainability measures.
More about GLOBALG.A.P.
GLOBALG.A.P. is a brand of smart farm assurance solutions
developed by FoodPLUS GmbH in Cologne, Germany, with cooperation from producers, retailers, and
other stakeholders from across the food industry. These solutions include a range of standards for
safe, socially and environmentally responsible farming practices. The most widely used GLOBALG.A.P.
standard is IFA, applicable to fruit and vegetables, aquaculture, floriculture, livestock, and
more. This standard also forms the basis for the GGN label: the consumer label for certified,
responsible farming and transparency.
The GLOBALG.A.P. brand began its journey as EUREPGAP in
1997. Twenty-six years later, over 200,000 producers have GLOBALG.A.P. certification in 134
countries. Nearly 150 team members around the world are dedicated to the mission of spreading
responsible farming practices to ensure safe food for future generations.
More about ISEAL
ISEAL is the global membership organization for ambitious,
collaborative, and transparent sustainability systems. It drives collective efforts to tackle the
most pressing sustainability issues and create a world where markets are a force for good.
ISEAL supports sustainability systems and their partners in
delivering solutions to critical global challenges, so that companies and governments can meet
their sustainability commitments and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. It drives improvement by
defining credible practices, convening forums for collaboration, sharing of experience, and
collective action,providing expertise, advice, and training, and facilitating and promoting
innovation to strengthen sustainability systems.
Joining ISEAL’s learning community helps sustainability systems and their partners to deliver real, lasting, positive change. ISEAL’s Community Members are sustainability standards and similar systems that collaborate to scale and demonstrate positive impact. Its Code Compliant members go further, adhering to ISEAL’s Codes of Good Practice – a globally recognized framework for best practice.