Trade Facilitation in Central Asia

About the project

Countries: Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan

Period: February – November 2018

Project partner: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)

Objective: The GLOBALG.A.P. Secretariat and GIZ seek to promote awareness of GLOBALG.A.P. solutions across Central Asia in order to increase horticulture trade and market competitiveness.

Approach: GLOBALG.A.P. and GIZ hosted trainings to teach experts from across Central Asia about the benefits of GLOBALG.A.P. consultancy and auditing services, and about the Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA) standard. In addition to two Farm Assurer* workshops, TOUR stops were held in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan to raise awareness on food safety. The team introduced GLOBALG.A.P. and the role of food standard certification within international supply chains. In Uzbekistan, the GLOBALG.A.P. Chief Marketing Officer met different stakeholders of the agriculture and food sector to identify the main challenges regarding food safety and exports.

Pre-audit farm assessments on pilot farms were also conducted to clarify the requirements for compliance with the GLOBALG.A.P. standard and to develop action plans for achieving certification. A regional conference was held to link experts with local and international market participants.

*The GLOBALG.A.P. Farm Assurer Program was succeeded by the Registered Trainer program in 2022.

SDGs addressed: #2 Zero hunger, #3 good health and well-being, #8 decent work and economic growth, and #12 responsible consumption and production

Outcome

Two capacity building and Farm Assurer workshops provided 45 technical experts from the region with detailed knowledge on the IFA standard for fruit and vegetables. A total of 24 of them also participated in the quality management system (QMS) and internal inspector training (IIT) to learn about the QMS requirements according to the GLOBALG.A.P. rules, which are essential for obtaining certification as a producer group. The IIT provided further practical guidance for the internal staff of producer groups and Farm Assurers on how to conduct internal inspections.

A total of six pilot farms were visited across the four countries, including one cooperative. The GLOBALG.A.P. technical experts were confident that with continuous support, the farms will be able to achieve certification in the near future. The pre-audit farm assessments provided additional opportunities for participants to gain practical on-farm experience with the GLOBALG.A.P. standard while accompanying technical experts conducting the assessments. Participants particularly enjoyed learning how to competently fill out a checklist, how to prepare farms correctly, and how to conduct an internal audit.

Informational posters in Russian were provided to further support the consultants’ work in breaking down the complex requirements of the standard into easy-to-follow instructions. With these capacity building measures, future consultants and auditors are now well prepared to accelerate GLOBALG.A.P. certification in the region.