The aim is to have the scheme recognised by the European Retailer Partnership 'in the very near future,' Irish food minister Noel Treacy told the Eurep Gap international convention in Dublin last week.
Treacy told delgates that the National Horticultural Development Board, An Bord Glas, already operates a quality assurance scheme and a quality programme which includes the operation of an inspection and certification process to the board's specification for horticultural producers. This is carried out independently by the National Standards Authority of Ireland which is charged with compiling the specification, operating a certificate of merit and national quality awards process and overseeing the use of the Bord Glas quality symbol.
Ireland's national accreditation board, NAB, has accredited the NSAI for the certification of participants to the Bord Glas specification for horticulture producers to the European standard EN45011.
'The achievement of the accreditation by the NSAI for the Bord Glas quality scheme will also act as a stepping stone for the scheme to be recognised by Eurep Gap for promoting and implementing the Eurep Gap standard,' said Treacy. 'The Eurep Gap standards have now been incorporated into the Bord Glas specification for horticultural producers and Bord Glas will be seeking in the very near future to have the quality scheme recognised by Eurep Gap.'
