Success story: first localg.a.p. PFA compliant farms in Peru

While consumers in emerging markets are increasingly demanding safe and sustainable food, producers in these markets are not always prepared for certification to global standards like our GLOBALG.A.P. Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA) standard. That’s where our localg.a.p. tool, the Primary Farm Assurance (PFA) standard, comes in handy, as seen in the following success story from Peru.

localg.a.p. encourages safe and sustainable food production in emerging markets

We created localg.a.p. as a capacity-building tool, via the PFA standard, to be applied at a local scale, suitable to agricultural supply chains in emerging markets. It helps producers adopt good agricultural practices that can improve the efficiency of farm management, cut exposure to food safety risks, and comply with food safety legislation. Through these steps, producers can gain increased access to local and regional markets and work towards full certification to our flagship IFA standard.

Collaboration helps Peruvian farms to advance

Today’s localg.a.p. success story from Peru is the result of active collaboration between multiple stakeholders who are all intent on bringing safe food to Peruvian consumers. Cencosud Retail Perú S.A.C. first became a GLOBALG.A.P. Community Member four years ago. Enrique Ameghino, Perishable Business Manager at Cencosud Retail Perú said, “With GLOBALG.A.P.’s support, we will be able to bolster our value chain, with our suppliers guaranteeing ever greater compliance with the strict social, environmental, and economic standards which will ensure the stability of the business in the long term.” Today, Cencosud is seeing these hopes become a reality.

Cencosud introduces localg.a.p. to Peruvian producers

As our longstanding partnership with Cencosud continued to develop, they led the initiative to connect their melon supplier Inversiones Marielita Trujillo ERL and their tomato supplier Grupo Inversiones la Gran Siembra with GLOBALG.A.P. Registered Trainer Adolfo Infante, so that he could assist them in achieving localg.a.p. compliance at the PFA level. Cencosud also sources bananas, melons, and watermelons from Agronegocios del Norte 2 Marias, a third Peruvian producer who recently achieved localg.a.p. compliance.

However, as with any trusted assurance program, it requires an approved third-party certification body (CB) to perform on-farm assessments. In this case, the CBs Control Union and SGS were brought in to assess the abovenamed Cencosud suppliers. As a result of this ongoing food safety initiative in Peru, there are now five active CBs in Peru ready to assess farms to the localg.a.p. PFA standard.

Angelo Lazo, Technical Key Account Manager for Peru, has worked tirelessly on this project to promote responsible agriculture in Peru through GLOBALG.A.P.’s farm assurance solutions, and is glad to see his labors beginning to produce results. “This is a huge step in Peruvian agriculture,” he said, “where good agricultural practices are being implemented to meet the needs of the local market. The goal is to protect the health of consumers, adopt procedures that aim to protect the environment, and encourage ethical labor.”

Read here how the localg.a.p. program can help move your farm or your suppliers towards certification to GLOBALG.A.P.’s globally recognized IFA standard.