Consumers worldwide are increasingly demanding quality foods that are produced safely and sustainably. Retailers around the world are rising to meet the challenge by demanding the implementation of good agricultural practices, including food safety, from their producers.
In some cases – especially in the case of emerging and/or small-scale producers – meeting this demand can be difficult because:

1. Retailers have limited sourcing possibilities, since producers in emerging markets may not yet formally comply with food safety and good agricultural production requirements, or may be unable to achieve GLOBALG.A.P. Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA) certification immediately.
2. Producers, meanwhile, face the challenges of accessing local and regional markets without any compliance with standards or certification for their products.

OUR SOLUTION? localg.a.p. 
localg.a.p. has been designed by GLOBALG.A.P. to be used as a capacity-building tool, or to be applied as a local standard for agricultural supply chains especially in developing economies and emerging markets. 
It is intended to help producers adopt good agricultural practices that can improve the efficiency of farm management, cut exposure to food safety risks, and comply with legislation on food safety. Through these steps, producers can gain increased access to local and regional markets.

localg.a.p. is also a key building block for producers who need GLOBALG.A.P. IFA certification to access demanding markets. With this tool, buyers will be able to increase their sourcing possibilities by developing a network of reliable producers that are already linked to an internationally recognized standard – namely, GLOBALG.A.P. IFA.

localg.a.p. is the lowest/entry level of the GLOBALG.A.P. family of products and not covered under the certification scope.

The localg.a.p. brand offers the  PRIMARY FARM ASSURANCE (PFA) STANDARD.

The PFA control points and compliance criteria are a subset of the GLOBALG.A.P. IFA standard requirements, and are available in different levels. Producers can therefore start at the lowest level, and progress to the next higher level(s) when ready. The ultimate intention is to progress towards better practices on the farm level. If IFA certification level is not the intended target, the required level of compliance shall be determined by the market.

The following are potentially acceptable “end goal” levels:

(i)  PFA Intermediate Level (only assessment level, not suitable for export)

(ii)  GLOBALG.A.P. IFA certification (covers food safety, workers’ health and safety, and environmental sustainability).

The status of a PFA assessed producer can be verified in the  GLOBALG.A.P. database.

Training is an essential component of any capacity-building program and of establishing any new standard. For more information, visit our  Capacity Building webpage.

For assistance, kindly send an email to:  localgap@globalgap.org