BOPP achieves Resembling Status to GLOBALG.A.P.
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The British Ornamental Plant Production (BOPP) Certification Scheme has recently once again been recognised as a Resembling Scheme to the GLOBALG.A.P. Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA) Standard.
This means that growers who gain certification to the BOPP Grower Standard in the UK conform to a large extent to the GLOBALG.A.P. requirements, and demonstrates that BOPP members are working to globally recognised standards of Good Agricultural Practice (G.A.P.). This is a four-year cycle of benchmarking when a new version of the IFA Standard is released, and BOPP now resembles Version 5.
BOPP Certification provides assurance to buyers in terms of quality management, safety, employment and environmental standards. The scheme chose to benchmark the GLOBALG.A.P. IFA Standard to provide additional recognition for the Grower Standard in terms of global crop safety and sustainability standards, and enable members to access the international market. This maintains one of the core objectives of BOPP to provide a ‘one-stop-shop’ approach for certification and reduce audit fatigue for members.
Anna Cook is the BOPP Scheme Manager and she believes that the benchmarking process is important to ensure BOPP delivers its strategy to Raise Standards in Ornamental Horticulture in the UK. “The Scheme decided it was important to maintain its benchmarking status with GLOBALG.A.P. to provide assurance to UK customers that BOPP members are working to the highest standards of good agricultural practice. This sets BOPP level with other international assurance schemes, such as Red Tractor, MPS, KFC and Florverde. We hope this helps members to meet the requirements of their customers through one audit.”
Members will continue to be inspected by UKAS accredited certification body, NSF Certification, and members can chose to meet the additional requirements in the GLOBALG.A.P. supplement (BOPP Annex 2) to gain full equivalency and registration within the GLOBALG.A.P. Database. There will be a six-month transition period to allow members time to comply with the requirements of the new Grower Standard, and additional technical support will be provided by the Scheme via templates and guidance notes.
For further information contact Anna.Cook@hta.org.uk or visit www.hta.org.uk/bopp
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