Certifications have become more and more important over the last years as more and more retail merchant are demanding it . GlobalGAP is one of them and not only the sake increased over the years , they fine - tuned their standards and sum up more tools and module to support the growers and the diligence become more sustainable . In this article , we will talk about the world-wide monetary standard IFA , the new faculty IDA for environmental prosody , the role of FSI , and GRASP on the social side and how these certifications help grower and the industriousness . This is explained by Juan Carlos Isaza , Technical Expert Floriculture at GlobalGAP .
Juan Carlos Isaza at the IPM Essen 2023 .
IFA : GlobalGAP standard for blossom and ornamentalsThe GlobalGAP stigma commence its journey as EureGAP in 1997 and the GlobalGAP standard for flowers and ornamentals have been operational for almost 20 twelvemonth . IFA , scant for Integrated Farm Assurance is a globose standard for responsible floriculture practices . “ IFA is about guide the manufacturer . Give them the book and they fill up it in , it is more of an organiser . They have the knowledge . It spread over all leg of output , from preharvest activities such as stain and urine management to plant protection merchandise and postharvest activities . The standard adopts a holistic approach , with principles and criteria that cover the key topic of environmental sustainability and biodiversity , workers ’ wellness and safety , , product processes , and traceability . ” Lately , a raw version , v6 , has been introduced which will be obligatory in 2024 .
IFA and FSIAccording to Isaza , the demand for their flagship IFA standard increase over the days , but admit a bound when FSI was introduced in 2013 . FSI , or Floriculture Sustainability Initiative , is a market - labour initiative that brings together member of the international floriculture sector to advance progress in sustainability measures . This advancement rests on the three pillar of responsible production and barter , creditworthy conduct , and integrated reporting . GlobalGAP ’s IFA standard has been pick out in the FSI ’s GAP ( Good Agricultural Practices ) class since its inception . In sum , there are three categories ; the other two category are Social and Environmental . Currently , there are 16 voluntary sustainable monetary standard and schemes in the FSI Basket of Standards , class fit in to these three categories .
IDA – enviromental metricsTwo years ago , in 2020 , GlobalGAP lauched Impact - drive Approach to Sustainability module ( or IDA for myopic . It is a digital record - keep system , which allows floriculture producers to take in , phonograph record , and translate their environmental data . “ We developed International Development Association for the environmental registration basket of FSI and as part of a stronger outcome - approaching to sustainability , a vision of our directors ” , Isaza excuse . In contrast to IFA , which is about practices , IDA is about metrics and about getting an brainwave in how much your company use , like how much water do you use , so veridical issue . The IDA system can be used as a so - call add - on ( think of in combination with further GlobalGAP certification ) or independently as a standalone module .
And Isaza expects that the pursuit for this module will produce significanlty in the do years . “ First of all , environmental metric are increasingly more demanded today . Secondly , with the current high price of all input signal , it is valuable for growers to see and know how much they use and how it Ii compared to others . And finally , a lot IFA producers do not have IDA and it will take them only one extra hour on top of their IFA audit to meet IDA . So a few minute for IFA and an extra one or two for IDA . Then , the agriculturist will be in both baskets , namely GAP and Environmental . ”
Isaza is assured that this module will not only supportgrowers but the full the industry to prosper . “ We get more insight in the carbon footprint of the industriousness in world-wide and therefore the sphere can move its focusing from the best to the one that need to improve drastically and recruit their performance horizontal surface to those companies performing well . To fancy it , when looking at the industry and it ’s energy use , for good example , as a toll shaped curvature – a normal distribution breaking ball – on the side of less phthisis we see the trailblazer and on the side of higher consumptions those which may have an opportunity to improve ( reduce ) . If as a sphere , we focalise on keep going these to move towards in-between or “ normal ” consumption , it will have a cocksure shock on the overall sphere performance . ”
GRASP v2 : Protecting the people behind our flowers and plantsOn the social side , they have GRASP , GlobalGAP Risk judgement on Social Practice , which producers can voluntarily add to the IFA criterion . Also here they recently introduced a new reading , v2 . “ hold v2 contains much more efficient principle and criteria for forced labor risk indicant , the aegis of human rights , and potential exposure to proletarian discrimination , ” Flores explained . “ The principles and criteria in GRASP were adapted to the world of migratory labor flow , unforesightful - term contracting , and job labour risks . producer now have access to in force processes to ply social compliance to complicated labour resource . GRASP can now be applied to small menage farm without hire labor . This open up the opportunity for smallholder to take part in the external mart . ” With version 1 , 200,000 growers globally were audited and version 2 will be obligatory in January 2024 .
For more information : GLOBALG.A.P[email protected]www.globalgap.org
© FloralDaily.com/Elita Vellekoop
