The Ethical Charter Implementation Program (ECIP) recognizes and celebrates growers who hold social responsibility certifications. As part of this effort, The Sustainability Consortium has benchmarked 16 certification programs, confirming their alignment with the Ethical Charter on Responsible Labor Practices. Growers who hold one of these certifications receive free access to ECIP LAB and automatically achieve the highest engagement score on the platform.
GLOBALG.A.P.: IFA plus GRASP add-on is among the benchmarked and approved certification programs recognized by ECIP. Read on to learn how this certification works and how it aligns with the Ethical Charter principles.
What is GLOBALG.A.P. Certification?
GLOBALG.A.P. is a leading brand of farm assurance solutions that aim to promote safe and responsible farming worldwide. Covering agriculture, aquaculture, and floriculture, GLOBALG.A.P. solutions support farms in meeting food safety, environmental, traceability, and workers’ health, safety, and welfare standards. With the backing of over 440 member organizations worldwide, GLOBALG.A.P. helps producers navigate market and regulatory requirements with confidence.
How Does GLOBALG.A.P. Align with the Principles of the Ethical Charter on Responsible Labor Practices?
The Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA) standard plus the GLOBALG.A.P. Risk Assessment on Social Practice (GRASP) add-on was formally benchmarked and is approved for ECIP, enabling producers to demonstrate compliance with Ethical Charter principles through an independent third-party audit.
IFA aims to support a holistic approach to responsible farming practices through the key topics of food safety, environment, workers’ health, safety, and welfare, production processes, and traceability. Developed through extensive collaboration with supply chain stakeholders, IFA is robust, realistic, and cost-efficient for producers.
Notably, IFA has consistently achieved Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) recognition and is aligned with the UN Global Compact Food and Agribusiness Principles. IFA certification covers almost 200,000 producers and over 4.5 million hectares of plant production annually.
GRASP covers four key social responsibility topics: Workers’ voice, human and labor rights information, human and labor rights indicators, and child and young worker protection. The GRASP add-on is implemented by more than 115,000 producers in over 100 countries worldwide – promoting the health, safety, and welfare of 1.85 million workers. The GRASP assessment can be combined with the IFA audit which saves time and money in meeting buyer requirements for food safety, social responsibility, and more with a single audit.
IFA plus GRASP:
- Covers social criteria listed in the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) core labor conventions
- Supports harmonization through country-specific interpretation guidelines for local legislation
- Assessed by trained and qualified auditors who are knowledgeable in agricultural production and interview skills
- Identifies areas of greater risk, allowing producers and retailers to direct attention and resources to those priorities
Benchmarking IFA plus GRASP to ECIP reduces the burden on producers and harmonizes audit requirements for buyers.
Steps to Gaining GLOBALG.A.P. Certification
If you’re thinking about certification, here’s a breakdown of the process:
- Conduct a self-assessment using the checklist.
- a. Obtain the latest standard documents (free and in multiple languages) from the GLOBALG.A.P. document center.
- b. New to self-assessment? Access a short tutorial in our educational video series.
- c. Reach out for support to Registered Trainers or find training with the GLOBALG.A.P. Academy.
- Based on the self-assessment, develop risk assessments and mitigation plans, and implement policies, procedures, and training as required.
- a. New to risk assessments? Access a short tutorial in our educational video series.
- Contact the CB of choice and request an audit.
- a. List of approved CBs for Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA) and the GLOBALG.A.P. Risk Assessment on Social Practice (GRASP) can be found here.
- b. Note that the GLOBALG.A.P. North America fee table does not cover CB service fees such as audit time or travel costs.
- Correct and close non-compliances detected during the CB audit. After non-compliances are closed, the certificate can be issued.
- a. Once a certificate is issued, the certification status is then publicly visible in the GLOBALG.A.P. IT systems for transparency in the market.
- Maintain certification program policies throughout the year and stay prepared for unannounced CB audits or integrity assessments.
Have Questions?
Contact GLOBALG.A.P.