How to get a GLOBALG.A.P. (EUREPGAP) Certification for exporting sweet potatoes to Europe

Getting the GLOBALGAP Certification is the first and most important step in becoming an exporter of agricultural products, particularly to Europe. Any producer of primary agricultural products, including sweet potatoes, whom the Integrated Farm Assurance Standard covers may apply for certification by GLOBALGAP approved Certification bodies.

Producers can be individual growers or producer groups. Producer groups may refer to cooperative societies or outgrowers.

GLOBALGAP (EUREPGAP) Certification mark

As a producer, you can achieve GLOBAL Certification under one of the following four options:

• Option 1: Option1 refers to an individual farms/producers applying for GLOBALGAP Certification. Also applicable to producers running multisite operations, i.e. several farms in various locations.
•  Option2:  This refers to a producer group seeking a certification. Producer groups must be a legal entity and it will be the certificate holder. A producer group can be a cooperative society or outgrowers’ group with established legal structures, internal management and control system, farmer internal self inspection based on GLOBALGAP checklist, internal inspection of all registered farms by qualified staff of the producer group and external verification o the producer groups by certification bodies.
• Options 3 and 4 refer to individual and group certification under benchmarked standards.

Registering with an approved Certification Body is the first step towards getting GLOBALGAP Certification. Upon registration, a producer will be supplied with a unique GLOBALGAP Number (GGN) which is unique to every producer.

The following data must be supplied when applying for GLOBALGAP Certification:

• Company and Location Information
•  Responsible persons of the company data
• Product Information

Company and Location Information:
You will be required to supply the following information on your company and the location of your company:

• Company name and produce handling facility(if different)
•  Contact details(street address)
• Contact details(Postal address)
• Postal Code
• City
• Country
• Phone Number(If available)
• Fax Number(If available)
• Email address(If available)
• GLN(If available)
• Legal registration by country as published and approved by the GLOBALGAP Board. This number is only used for internal verification to avoid double registration (e.g, tax number,VAT number, producer number etc.)
• Previous GLOBALGAP Number (GGN)
• Northern/Southern Latitude (voluntary) and Eastern/Western Longitude (voluntary)
• Site information: (e.g ponds) coordinates must be supplied for producers seeking certification against the Aquaculture scope as requested in the applicable control points
• Subcontracted activities

User Information:
This is the information required for the user or person in the company who is legally responsible for the certification:

• Title
•  First name
• Last name
• Contact details: Street address
• Contact details: Postal address
• Postal Code
• City
• Country
• Phone number (if available)
• Fax number (if available)
• E-mail address (if available)
• Login name (voluntary, only necessary if producer or producer group is interested in changing their data himself)

Product information
This information gives more detail on the product(s) to be certified and shall be used to invoice the producer. This information must be updated if there are any changes detected during the external inspections (to avoid incorrect invoicing).

• Product(s)
•  Annual Area under production (crops) / annual Quantity of production (livestock, aquaculture)
• Covered or non-covered crop (if crop)
• First harvest (first crop) on an area during a certification cycle or further harvest(subsequent crop) of the same or different crop on the same area during the certification cycle (if crop).
• Country of Destination (a group of countries may be declared where harmonized MRLs exist; e.g. European Union).
• Option (1, 2, 3 and/or 4 per product)
• Scheme name (if a benchmarked scheme; Options 3 and/or 4, per product))
• Certification Body.
• For Fruit and Vegetables: Exclusion of produce handling when not applicable (for each product certified).
• For Fruit and Vegetables: The GLOBALGAP number(s) (GGN) of the producer(s) who do(es) produce handling if it is included when done off-farm.
• For Fruit and Vegetables: If produce handling is included, the producer must declare whether products are also packed for other GLOBALGAP (EUREPGAP) certified.

 As you can see, these are procedures for which you should get from professional extension officers or your local chamber of commerce. Before the Registration Process can begin, as a producer, you must do the following:

• Contact the GLOBALGAP Certification Body in order to sign the Sublicence and Certification Agreement.
•  You will be assigned a GLOBALGAP Number GGN or any other registration number that the Certification GLOBLGAP Certification will have provided.
• You will pay GLOBALGAP a registration fee.

After the registration, the Certification Body will carry out an inspection of the producer’s farm and this will subsequently be done on an annual basis. Upon compliance, the producer will be issued with a certificate which will be valid for 12 months. The certificate may be shortened by the GLOBALGAP Certification body.

As mentioned above, you will need some help from agricultural extension officers and professional certification bodies for you to break the European market. Beginning this might be painful but once you get the window into the market, you will have access to the largest sweet potato export market in the world and that means your sweet potato produce will always have access to a lucrative market. In the next post, I will be doing some research into some of the certification bodies that are currently handling African farmers and which you can get in touch with once you are ready to begin the certification process.

For more information on GLOBALGAP Certification Process, visit here