EUREPGAP and the Kenya’s Horticultural industry agree on a common approach in getting equivalence between KENYAGAP and EUREPGAP

Mr. Nigel Garbutt, the Chairman of EurepGAP, was on a working tour of Kenya from 21st to 25th February 2005. His visit’s objectives were:

• To assess the industry’s readiness in compliance with the EurepGAP standards in general,

• To meet with FPEAK the, Kenyan exporters Association and its members to agree on how best KenyaGAP can achieve its envisaged role of incorporating small-holder issues in GAP compliance. 

The tour involved field visit’s to the small-holder production areas, meetings with exporters & FPEAK Board and management, public sector stakeholders involved in regulating the industry, development partners and NGO’s.

    The tour culminated in the establishment of a National Technical Working Group to:

• Develop a small holder EurepGAP Interpretation Guidelines that will be used in Kenya.

• To work out sustainable compliance modalities for small-scale farmers.

The core group of the committee will comprise of Technical personnel and Agronomists of exporting firms and will draw on experience of relevant stakeholders through a wide consultation process. 

Further, at the end of the tour, EurepGAP Chairman jointly with FPEAK  Chairman , Mr  Hasit Shah, agreed the following as the way forward :

1. FPEAK will continue to steer the process of revising KenyaGAP and benchmarking it with EurepGAP
2. FoodPLUS and FPEAK will enter into closer collaboration where:

• FPEAK undertakes to immediately start engaging all Kenyan stakeholders so that once KenyaGAP attains equivalence with EurepGAP, it will gain acceptance by all.
  
• FoodPLUS will assist in getting the message across to the world that KenyaGAP is equivalent to EurepGAP, once the benchmarking process is completed.
• A member of the National Technical Working Group will represent the Kenyan industry to the EurepGAP Technical committee.