GlobalGAP, the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform and the International Trade Centre (ITC), have announced that they are initiating ‘The Declaration of Abu Dhabi for Global Food Security through Good Agricultural Practices’.
The Declaration is effectively an invitation to key stakeholders in the global food system to join a new private-public partnership initiative.
By bringing together all major market players in the food industry, the initiative aims to identify, align and implement practical and viable solutions in response to growing global food security and safety challenges.
It is described as an open call for global collaboration to find new approaches that will make it easier, more cost effective and more attractive for farmers worldwide to adopt safe and sustainable production practices, making markets more accessible for farmers, and helping them to sustain their livelihoods as well as reducing poverty and malnutrition.
By joining the declaration, the partners have pledged to develop solutions that will help raise agricultural productivity, help ensure food safety and quality, and the sustainability of natural resources, without compromising biodiversity and ecosystems.
'SAI Platform was established with the vision to develop a joint understanding of sustainable agriculture and hands-on implementation tools for companies that source agricultural raw materials,' said Dirk Jan de With, president SAI Platform and vice-president of procurement ingredients and sustainability, Unilever. ‘Extending this vision and collaboration to include food safety and to reach wider audiences provides unprecedented opportunities to scale sustainable and safe farm practices.'
Kristian Moeller, CEO of GlobalGAP, added: 'Today’s world is all about collaboration. We are proud to be part of this global food security initiative, which gives our members and our 140,000 farmers the opportunity to collaborate with even more industry players and stakeholders, in particular governments and food manufacturers.'
