Fruit and vegetable producers in Belgium, Kenya, Uruguay and Japan have been recognised for their commitment to good agricultural practice by GlobalGAP, the industry's leading international certification standards provider.
At the 11th edition of its GlobalGAP Summit, which took place this week in Madrid, the group announced the winners of its first-ever GAP Awards, presenting prizes to VBT Responsibly Fresh (Belgium), Kakuzi (Kenya), Milagro (Uruguay) and Farm Alliance Matsumoto Farm Co (Japan).
Nigel Garbutt, chairman of GlobalGAP, said the standard of applicants had been "outstanding" and each had show a high level of innovation.
"Not only do they all show a huge commitment to GlobalGAP Certification to improve their production techniques but how they link this to advance their sales and marketing," he commented.
Around 400 delegates from 50 countries took part in this year's summit, which gave major retailers and producers an opportunity to share their views on how the continued, rapid globalisation of food retailing might bring valuable opportunities to producers worldwide.
At the event, the GlobalGAP board outlined how it was transforming its own role to become more than just a certification scheme and to provide new solutions that could help suppliers adapt to changes in global markets.
The group introduced new programmes, including LocalGAP for emerging producers as well as new add-on assessments under its GlobalGAP+ Add-On scheme designed to address specific concerns in more mature markets.
Thousands of producers are reportedly upgrading their GAP worldwide, with GlobalGAP supporting such efforts through both the LocalGAP programme and GlobalGAP Farm Assurers, a global network of professional advisers who help producers to set up quality management systems.
