GLOBAL SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE
It is an organization that sets voluntary standards for the certification of agricultural products. Large retail establishments in European Union countries have determined the minimum standards sought for agricultural products grown in these countries and imported abroad in order to ensure the consumption of healthy agricultural products.
The purpose of these standards is to ensure that agricultural products are presented to the final consumer in accordance with human health and safety. A product with a certificate; in the agricultural production process the sowing of the seed to the packaged product,
– Does not contain chemical, microbiological and physical residues harmful to human health,
– It is produced without polluting the environment or harming the natural balance,
- The welfare of people or other living things related to production is not adversely affected during its production,
- During the production, it is ensured that operations are carried out in accordance with the agricultural legislation of the country where the consumer is located and the agricultural legislation of the country where the product is grown.
Currently, the standard is applied for fresh fruit and vegetables, cut flowers and saplings. However, any agricultural product for human consumption can be certified according to these standards. The scopes of that are valid all over the world and whose general rules have been published are as follows;
– Production Material (Seedling, Seed)
- Fruits and vegetables
– Flowers and Ornamental Plants
– Integrated Farm Security (Cattle and Ovine Farms, Grain, Tea, Feed etc.)
– Integrated Aquaculture Security (Trout, Sea Bass farms etc.)
– Green (Raw) Coffee
GLOBAL SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE CERTIFICATE?
Producers who can apply according to the Protocol can be grouped into three groups:
1) Individual Manufacturers
The individual producer applies for the certificate. The registered production area and related product processing areas are inspected once a year by the certification body.
2) Agricultural Products Producer Associations
More than one producer can gather under the roof of producer associations, become institutionalized with a certain internal regulation and apply for certificate as a single institution. The group establishes a quality system within itself. The certification body audits this system once a year, with a random ion as the square root of the number of producers.
3) Equivalence:
An individual producer or producer group applies for an equivalent certificate. However, this option is not implemented in our country, since a standard equivalent to has not been developed yet.
The certificate is given to the product(s) applied for certification by the producer who is determined to produce in accordance with the conditions as a result of the inspections made by the agricultural producer or producer associations.
There are 49 major and 99 minor control points in the standard. The individual producer or producer group must comply with major control points 100 and minor control points 95 in order to pass the inspection successfully.
