Version 2.1 of the EurepGAP protocol was launched in Madrid on Friday. The revision of the document, which was 18 months in the making, and a new guideline document, are immediately available to producers, but full compliance is not obligatory until the end of 2005 for those that are already EurepGAP certified.

Producers can adopt the new protocol immediately and any company being audited before the beginning of 2004 is still entitled to comply with the previous version of the protocol. The new version - also dubbed version 2004 - officially becomes the norm on January 1 next year and all new certifications from that date will be carried out in accordance with its content.

Independent chairman of EurepGAP Nigel Garbutt told delegates at last week's conference that it was only through tireless work by the partnership's sub committees that this set of rules has been created. "[The protocol] faces up to new challenges, new disciplines and the need for higher levels of health and safety, traceability, worker welfare ... and has been brought about because of their dedication and hard work, not because they [members of the sub committees] are a member of a company or organisation, but because they are individually committed to the EurepGAP cause."

Details of the new protocol can be accessed through the EurepGAP website - www.eurep.org.

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