GLOBALG.A.P SUMMIT 2010 – Record Worldwide Gathering in London for the Organizations 10th Conference

Close to 500 delegates from 50 plus countries gathered for GLOBALG.A.P's SUMMIT 2010 at London's Hilton Metropole Hotel this 7/8 October. The event provided a unique networking opportunity for all those involved in primary production and retailing stimulated by 55 expert speakers covering key aspects of Good Agricultural Practice Implementation and their certification, reports www.megafishnet.com with reference to Global G.A.P.

The SUMMIT 2010 also marked special milestones in GLOBALG.A.P's history being the organizations 10th global conference as well as the launch of the fourth version of its Integrated Farm Assurance Standard.  

The revised standard has built upon practical experience of over 10 years in more than 100 countries worldwide where GLOBALG.A.P is implemented on more than 100,000 farms. The consultation process for the revision has been the most extensive ever managed: round table discussions at the GLOBALG.A.P Conference held in Cologne, Germany in 2008 and at the 5 stakeholder dialogues in Nairobi, Kuala Lumpur, Montevideo, Washington DC and Athens in 2009. Further stakeholder participation was also encouraged through 3 public consultation periods with more than 700 comments being evaluated.
Comments were received from a wide range of stakeholders from the private/public sectors as well as civil society.

The comments reflected the different cultural and agronomic situations where the GLOBALG.A.P Standards are implemented, but in general they have led to even clearer requirements as well as deletion of duplication. This version has been subjected to worldwide testing with local adaptation through the network of National Technical Working Groups, many of them were represented at the SUMMIT 2010 and are working to the principle of "Think Global, Act Local".

Nigel Garbutt, Chairman of GLOBALG.A.P said  „By incorporating this feedback the fourth version is more user friendly, better adapted to global agriculture as well as reflecting emerging issues such as the growing challenges of responsible water usage and ensuring the microbiological safety of fruits and vegetables.
Producers who consistently show high performance against the standard will be rewarded by a reduced audit in future years as well."

Other changes for Fruits and Vegetables include:

• More guidance for producers to help implement Integrated Pest Management

For Aquaculture

•    The Aquaculture base document underwent a complete restructuring to cover as many of the common control points for finfish, crustaceans and molluscs as possible. Crustaceans are completely covered by the Aquaculture Base module, whereas additional modules for finfish and molluscs were introduced. Also now all species can be certified and the limitation to salmon, pangasius, tilapia and shrimp has been removed

For Livestock

•    Species modules underwent some key changes which reflect the global nature of the  standard for beef and poultry making it more relevant in these global markets

GLOBALG.A.P Standards will be available in over 20 languages and are free to download at: www.globalgap.org