UK retailer Marks & Spencer (M&S) has agreed to share standards with international horticultural certification provider GlobalGAP, enabling fresh produce companies potentially to reduce the amount of auditing required in order to supply the group.
Under the terms of the agreement, M&S will continue to audit against its own Field to Fork standard, but where a grower has already achieved GlobalGAP accreditation, they will have the opportunity to reduce the number of audit questions and, by extension, the cost burden they face.
The retailer's technical manager for fresh produce, Johnathan Sutton, said the partnership with GlobalGAP was aimed squarely at harmonising food safety and product quality standards so that growers in particular weren't obliged to pay more than once to demonstrate compliance with the required rules.
'Both organizations recognise the increasing list of requirements facing farmers and see this new partnership as a way of trying to minimise this burden,' he commented.
Sutton joined M&S in November 2011, having worked in various technical and sourcing roles at Tesco in Asia and the UK.
Kristian Moeller, managing director of GlobalGAP underllined the significance of the move.
'This cooperation with Marks & Spencer as one of our retail members is another big step towards harmonisation, without losing the ability to respond to the needs for differentiation of strong brands,' he said.
