Global Markets Program Launched for Primary Production

The Global Food Safety Initiative is proud to share its Global Markets Programme for Primary Production. This release complements the publication of the Manufacturing programme in July 2011. These comprehensive step-by-step programmes guide businesses and producers through a continuous improvement process in their food safety management systems, thus facilitating local market access and creating mutual acceptance along the supply chain.

The GFSI Global Markets Primary Production Technical Working Group began meeting in early 2010 to define the food safety management requirements that a primary products supplier should have in place for the two levels of the programme – Basic and Intermediate level. The working group is comprised of food safety experts from producer, retail and manufacturing companies as well as international organisations, academic institutions, certification bodies and scheme owners. They based their work on food safety management documentation for the primary production sector, drawing on existing industry output.

The scope of the Primary Production Programme covers crops, fruit and vegetables. The Basic and Intermediate Level requirements for these scopes are available in a checklist format, and are further supported by assessor guidelines for each level as well as a detailed protocol to guide suppliers through each step of the programme. By progressing through these two steps of the programme in an incremental way, primary producers are guided along the path to achieving full certification against one of the GFSI recognised schemes for primary production.

Numerous pilot programmes to test market readiness of the Basic and Intermediate level requirements have been successfully carried out globally, including Kenya, Uganda and the Dominican Republic.

Marc Cwikowski, Chair of the Global Markets Primary Production Technical Working Group and Director, Food Safety and Supplier Quality at The Coca-Cola Company commented that “this is truly a valuable tool for producers with less experience in food safety management systems, as it provides a framework for assessment and continuous improvement. Our aim is that through the implementation of this programme on a global scale, producers around the world will be able to progress over time in a harmonised and systematic way towards obtaining certification against one of the GFSI recognised schemes for primary production”.

Morag Webb, Policy Adviser at COLEACP and member of the Technical Working Group added that “the challenge for us and the challenge for the industry is to address the common subject of food safety, across a wide range of very diverse conditions, across small and large companies and different products, cultures and very different means. PIP (a European cooperation programme managed by COLEACP) was interested in carrying out pilot projects against the Global Markets Programme as the protocol provided our technical assistance programmes with a baseline against which to monitor progress and assess impact".

To download the Global Markets Programme and supporting documentation, please visit www.mygfsi.com