A Stepping Stone to Safe and Sustainable Agriculture

Consumers worldwide are increasingly demanding quality foods that are produced safely and sustainably. Retailers around the world are rising to meet the challenge by demanding the implementation of good agricultural practices, including food safety, from their producers. In some cases – especially in the case of emerging and/or small-scale producers – meeting this demand can be difficult because:

1. Retailers have limited sourcing possibilities, since producers in emerging markets may not yet formally  comply with food safety and good agricultural production requirements, or may be unable to achieve GLOBALG.A.P. Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA) certification immediately.
2. Producers, meanwhile, face the challenges of accessing local and regional markets without any compliance with standards or certification for their products.

OUR SOLUTION? Primary Farm Assurance (PFA) 

PFA has been designed by GLOBALG.A.P. to be used as a capacity-building tool, or to be applied as a local standard for agricultural supply chains especially in developing economies and emerging markets. Retailers have limited sourcing possibilities, since producers in emerging markets may not yet formally comply with food safety and good agricultural production requirements, or may be unable to achieve GLOBALG.A.P. Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA) certification immediately. PFA is a ground-breaking program to get folks started on the process of working with the retailers they are comfortable with while keeping options available to advance to next levels of productivity!

It is intended to help producers adopt good agricultural practices that can improve the efficiency of farm management, cut exposure to food safety risks, and comply with legislation on food safety. Through these steps, producers can gain increased access to local and regional markets.

PFA is also a key building block for producers who need GLOBALG.A.P. IFA certification to access demanding markets. With this tool, buyers will be able to increase their sourcing possibilities by developing a network of reliable producers that are already linked to an internationally recognized standard – namely, GLOBALG.A.P. IFA.