Unlocking New Markets for Responsibly Grown Produce

During annual press conference at Fruit Logistica GLOBALG.A.P. has announced new add-ons to unlock new trends and new markets. GLOBALG.A.P. team and guest speakers discussed how to meet US import requirements, talked over the topic of biosecurity for Panama disease TR4 in bananas and exchanged views on other topics. Below is the brief extract of new GLOBALG.A.P.`s add-ons, which will help companies in fruits and vegetables business  to unlock new markets.

Food Safety & Modernization Act (FSMA) Add-on. In the USA, the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) requires specific practices to be implemented and followed for the production, handling, and import of food products. To support implementation efforts at the producer level, GLOBALG.A.P. is offering an FSMA Add-on to address control points found in the FSMA Produce Safety Rule. The add-on may be used by producers growing fruit and vegetables in the Unites States, as well as producers outside the United States who anticipate that their products will be exported to the US market. The FSMA Add-on will be available in early 2018 and will facilitate the export of certified fruit and vegetables to the USA.

On-Farm Sustainability and Food Safety Aligned – FSA Add-on. By answering just 20 additional Farm Sustainability Assessment (FSA)-based questions, producers using GLOBALG.A.P. Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA) certification can achieve industry-wide sustainability recognition. This joint solution of the SAI Platform FSA and GLOBALG.A.P. IFA certification is an important step forward for food supply chains around the world. With one audit, farms can demonstrate GLOBALG.A.P. compliance and claim up to the highest level of FSA equivalence, while integrating food safety and sustainability in one on-farm approach.

Biosecurity Add-on for Bananas – TR 4. Fusarium oxysporum  f. sp . cubense – tropical race 4 (TR4), which is also referred to as “Foc 4” or “Panama disease”, is the most imminent threat to the banana industry and to those livelihoods that depend on banana production and consumption for their subsistence. There is currently no known effective treatment to control the disease for Cavendish cultivars. Therefore, preventive measures are the only viable option.

For this reason, the GLOBALG.A.P. Secretariat has developed the TR4 Biosecurity Add-On, a tool that provides farmers with a risk mitigation plan to prevent the introduction (and/or further spreading) of the TR4 pathogen to, within, and from their GLOBALG.A.P. certified farms.

Additionally, this add-on is innovative since it is designed to help raise awareness about the seriousness of the disease at a global scale by means of informative annexes. This add-on is GLOBALG.A.P.’s contribution to combating this threat that the banana industry is facing.

SUMMIT 2018 Lima Peru. The GLOBALG.A.P. SUMMIT fosters dialogue among global community members. Taking place every two years, the conference is the perfect setting to discuss the latest developments in food safety and sustainability as well as Good Agriculture and Aquaculture Practices and the future of the industry. Creating new markets for responsibly grown food is vital to building a sustainable future in agriculture, so GLOBALG.A.P. is making it the key focus of SUMMIT 2018.

Contact: GLOBALG.A.P., Germany

Claudia Meifert
+49 (0) 221-57993-997
meifert@globalgap.org
www.globalgap.org  
www.summit2018.org