Fresh Insights Number 16. Making GlobalGAP smallholder friendly.
Abstract
GLOBALGAP has become the most successful family of private voluntary standards for the primary production of a wide range of agricultural products. It has over 80,000 certified producers in 80 countries. Overall, the content of the fruit and vegetable modules (all-farm, crop-base, and fruits and vegetable) is well designed and suitable for large-scale commercial growers. However, small-scale growers, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, can find it difficult to comply with all the requirements. Smallholders who are not well supported by their exporter struggle with GLOBALGAP. Evidence from Kenya has shown that most either fail to certify or drop out of the compliance system within one or two years of being certified because of the complexities of the standard and the high costs of compliance. Some large export companies are switching from procuring from smallholders to focus on a small number of large commercial farms. This is because of the high costs of testing for pesticide residues on every farm site, and requirements for traceability back to individual farms or even plots, despite their very small production volumes.
Citation
International Institute for Environment and Development, London, UK, 33 pp.
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