GRASP stands for GLOBALG.A.P. Risk Assessment on Social Practice and is a voluntary add-on module of GLOBALG.A.P. GRASP was developed to assess social practices on the farm and consists of 11 questions which can be added to the annual GLOBALG.A.P. audit.

GRASP was developed together with GIZ (former GTZ), Coop, Edeka, Lidl, Metro AG and Migros in an open stakeholder dialogue with pilots in 5 countries. Find more details in the GRASP report.

During the assessment the following topics are checked:

1. Employees’ Representative
2. Complaint Procedure
3. Self-Declaration on Good Social Practices (including commitment to ILO core labor conventions)
4. Access to National Labor Regulations
5. Working Contracts
6. Regular payment of wages
7. Payment of at least national minimum wages or according to bargaining agreement
8. Non-Employment of Minors
9. Children of workers that live on the farm shall have access to Compulsory School Education
10. Time Recording System
11. Working Hours & Breaks

R1 Additional Social Benefits (open question)
QMS Implementation on group level: This control point checks how the implementation of GRASP is integrated into the QMS of the producer group.

GRASP assures that basic social requirements are checked annually on each participating farm, in producer groups on a square root sample of producer group members.

GRASP is document control combined with a GLOBALG.A.P. audit done by GLOBALG.A.P. auditors who have passed a GRASP online training. The GLOBALG.A.P. GRASP auditor also conducts an interview with the workers’ representative, but not with the workers.

• Producers often supply different markets and have to fulfill requirements of different clients.
• Therefore, we recommend that you create a list of standards or tools which you as a client will accept from your producer.
• A producer who is following another social standard accepted by you should not be asked to do GRASP on top of it.
• For your reference here, some GLOBALG.A.P. GRASP Observers share their list of accepted social programs with their suppliers.

• As a GRASP Observer you receive full access to the assessment reports, including the comments of the assessor.
• The results of the GRASP assessment demonstrate the performance of the individual producer or the producer group on the GRASP requirements.
• On top of that, you receive valid information on potential social risks like employment via subcontractors or seasonal labor.
• There is no passing or failing of the assessment.
• At the end there is an overall assessment result: shows fully compliant / some improvements needed / not compliant, but some steps taken / not compliant.
• All GRASP control points are weighted equally – to get a clear picture of the performance of your suppliers you can check the individual result of every control point in the GRASP assessment checklist uploaded to the GLOBALG.A.P. Database.
• Producers who don’t fully comply might have good reasons for that. Non-compliances are commented on by the certification body. We suggest you to work together with your suppliers to maintain continuous improvement.
• The GLOBALG.A.P. Secretariat can support awareness raising or topic specific (i.e. overtime) workshops with your suppliers.
• This provides supply chain partners with valid information on basic indicators on working conditions on farms and can help you identify risks.

You have access to all assessment reports (e.g. to prepare for a 2nd party assessment). What´s more, the GLOBALG.A.P. Secretariat can provide annual reports for your use:

• Number of farms participating in GRASP per country (monthly)
• Number of employees involved (annually)
• Compliance levels per country (annually)
• Non compliances per country (annually)
• Improvements over time (annually)
• Etc.

On demand, the GLOBALG.A.P. Secretariat can prepare individual reports.

If you monitor which GGNs deliver products to you, you have the option to communicate how many of your suppliers participate in GRASP, too.

• Producers are aware that labor issues are important for clients asking for GRASP – this reduces the tolerance of bad social practice.
• You know how suppliers perform on the GRASP requirements – this enables you to react on identified potential risks by initiating a dialogue with your suppliers on how to achieve improvement.

Inform and be informed!

• Ensure transparency: Tell your suppliers what the assessment is for.
  • Documents and records: Tell your suppliers what the assessment is about.
  • Costs: Support the one-stop-shop principle of GLOBALG.A.P. and let GRASP be assessed during the IFA audit.

Application and registration procedure

• The time factor: If you ask for GRASP, please consider that if there is no National Interpretation Guideline in the country of production yet, the Certification Body needs time to prepare the assessment as they need to ask for exception at the GLOBALG.A.P. Secretariat.
• If there is a National Interpretation Guideline, the Certification Body can start with the GRASP assessment immediately.
• There are several points relevant for the GRASP assessment: Company structure of the producer/producer group, number of employees, forms of employment (family run business, subcontracted activities, service suppliers etc.)

Assessment procedure

• GRASP is mainly based on document control. It is necessary to prepare the appropriate records and contracts, making them available and accessible. You can check how to support producers in this point – by providing examples, agreeing on templates, etc.

The self-assessment or the internal group assessment help prepare the producer/ producer group for the external assessment by the Certification Body. The central tools are the GRASP Checklist, the Implementation Guideline and also the National Interpretation Guidelines. If you know of specific cases or crucial issues which occur regularly, you can agree on a basic procedure for related control