Global G.A.P

Global G.A.P.

What is Global G.A.P.?

Global GAP is an internationally recognised set of farm standards dedicated to  Good Agricultural Practices ( GAP).The Global GAP certificate is the reassurance that food reaches accepted levels of safety and quality, and has been produced sustainably, respecting the health and the safety of the workers, the environment, and in consideration of animal welfare issues.

Through certification, producers can gain access to international markets by demonstrating their adherence to these values.

The objective of the GAP codes, standards and regulations include, to a varying degree:

 -  ensuring safety and quality of produce in the food chain

 -  capturing new market advantages by modifying supply chain governance

 -  improving natural resources  use, workers health and working conditions, and/ or

 -  creating new market opportunities for farmers and exporters in developing countries

Potential benefices og GAP:

-  Appropriate adaption and monitoring of GAP helps improve the safety and quality of food and other agricultural product.

-  It may help reduce the risk of non- compliance with national and international regulations, standards and guidelines ( in particular of the Codex    

   Alimentarius    Commission, World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the International Plant Protection Convention ( IPPC) regarding

   permitted pesticides, maximum    levels of contaminants ( including pesticides, veterinary drugs, redionuclide and mycotoxins) in food nad non-food

   agricultural produce, as well as other    chemical, microbiological and physical contamination hazards.

-  Adaption of GAP helps promotes sustainable agricultural and contributes to meeting national and international environment and social development

   objectives

Challenges related to GAP:

-  In some cases GAP implementation and especially record keeping and certification will increase production costs. In this respect, lack of

    harmonization     between existing GAP - related schemes and availability of affordable certification systems has often led to increased

    confusion and certification costs  for farmers and exporters.

-  Standards of GAP can be used to serve competing interest of special stakeholders in agri- food supply chains by modifying supplier -buyer relations

-  There is a high risk that small scale farmers will not be able to seize export market opportunities unless they are adequately informed, technically

    prepared     and organized to meet this new challenge with governments and public agencies playing a facilitating role.

-  Compliance with GAP standards does nor always foster all the environmental and social benefits which are claimed,

-  Awareness raising is needed of  ' win-win' practices which lead to improvements in terms of yield and production efficiencies as well as environment

   and health and safety of workers. One suc approach i Integrated Production and Past Monitoring ( IPPM)

More about GLOBAL G.A.P and  Good Agricultural Practices you can reed on the official sites.

http://www.globalgap.org/uk_en/

http://www.fao.org/prods/gap/

For each certification there are control points.Control points are locations in the production process in which review compliance processes on each single standard.