What is EurepGAP?

• EurepGAP is a private sector body that sets voluntary standards for the certification of agricultural products around the globe.
  
  
• EurepGAP is an equal partnership of agricultural producers and retailers which want to establish certification standards and procedures for Good Agricultural Practices (GAP).
  
  
• EurepGAP is a pre-farm-gate-standard that means the certificate covers the process of the certified product from before the seed is planted until it leaves the farm. EurepGAP is a business-to-business label and is therefore not directly visible for the consumers.
  
  
• EurepGAP is a set of normative documents. These documents cover the EurepGAP General Regulations, the EurepGAP Control Points and Compliance Criteria and the EurepGAP Checklist.
  
  



The Goals of EurepGAP


The EurepGAP standard is primarily designed to maintain consumer confidence in food quality and food safety. Other important goals are to minimize detrimental environmental impacts of farming operations, optimize the use of inputs and to ensure a responsible approach to worker health and safety.


The Members and Structure of EurepGAP

EurepGAP members include retailers, producers/farmers and associate members from the input and service side of agriculture. Governance is by a Board which is chaired by an independent Chairperson. The Board also agrees on the activity plan of the organisation. Sector Committees discuss and decide upon product and sector specific issues. All committees have 50% retailer and 50% producer/supplier representation and hereby creating an efficient partnership. The work of the Committees is supported by FoodPLUS, a not for profit limited company based in Cologne, Germany, fulfilling a secretariat function for EurepGAP.

The Executive Management of Foodplus GmbH, i.e. its Managing Director, signs responsible for the implementation of Policies and Standards. Financial and legal ownership and responsability for FoodPLUS GmbH holds the EHI Retail Institute via its 100% Subsidiary EHI-Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH. The EHI Retail Institute also operates the European Retail Academy, a global network of Research Institutes linked to retail activities and topics.


The History of EurepGAP

EurepGAP started in 1997 as an initiative by retailers belonging to the Euro-Retailer Produce Working Group (EUREP). British retailers in conjunction with supermarkets in continental Europe were the driving forces. They reacted on growing concerns by the consumers with product safety, environmental and labor standards and decided to take more responsibility for what happened in the supply chain. On the other side the development of common certification standards were also in the interest of many producers. Those with contractual relations to several retailers complained that they had to undergo multiple audits against different criteria every year. On this background EUREP started to work on harmonized standards and procedures for the development of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) in conventional agriculture.


The Implementation of the Certification Standards

EurepGAP is one of the very few globally operating standardisation organizations that enjoy a high level of political and financial independence from the public sector as well as from individual member influence and shareholder agendas.
To keep its independence EurepGAP does not conduct the certification process itself. Farmers or farmer groups can only be certified against the EurepGAP criteria by authorized Certification Bodies (CB). A EurepGAP Certification Body is a company fulfilling the requirements for approved EurepGAP CBs to grant EurepGAP certification in the relevant product scope. Currently EurepGAP is working with over 100 CBs in more than 70 countries.


The Approval of other Certification Standards

As many other on-farm quality assurance systems have been in place for some time prior to the existence of EurepGAP, a way had to be found to encourage the development of regionally adjusted integrated crop management systems and so to prevent farmers from expensive multiple audits. Existing national or regional quality assurance schemes that have successfully completed their benchmarking process are recognized as equivalent to EurepGAP.

Please find here more detailed information for Farmers, Accreditation Bodies (AB) and Certification Bodies CB).