MPS announced last week it would widely roll out the Product Proof sustainability initiative — a system able to demonstrate that certain active substances were not used in cultivation by means of compulsory daily registration and independent sampling — in the horticultural sector in the fourth quarter, according to a press release. This will offer growers many advantages combined with the announced collaboration with GLOBALG.A.P.
The Product Proof tests are performed to, for example, ascertain whether an active substance was administered in accordance with the label and whether the substance is registered on a daily basis. Tests also examine whether the active substance appears on a list of any prohibited products and whether it belongs to the neonicotinoids group.
A verification of the restrictions, which a specific customer has imposed, completes the process and affords Product Proof a tailor-made character. Growers that possess an MPS-ABC certificate are eligible for Product Proof.
“Recent developments clearly demonstrate the importance of introducing a system that proves certain active substances have not been administered during cultivation,” explains MPS director Theo de Groot, who refers to the measure proposed by State Secretary Van Dam banning the substance Imidacloprid and including eight active substances by Aldi Sud in Germany.
According to the MPS director, the sector is on the eve of a new era. “Retailers will increasingly act on the basis of hard numbers instead of whether a certificate has been obtained or not. In the United States, the most normal thing in the world for a retailer have detailed insight into company-specific figures related to a grower’s environmental impact. Launching Product Proof allows us to join this development.” During IPM, a number of growers registered to be included in the ongoing Product Proof pilot.
Besides a growing need for transparency for traders and consumers, MPS notes that growers are looking for simplification. “At the moment, it is possible for a producer to be visited by two different auditors two days in a row for different certificates,” De Groot reveals. “The audits have major overlaps. This is not particularly efficient from the grower’s perspective.” To avoid unnecessarily burdening the grower when performing audits, MPS recently concluded a collaboration with GLOBALG.A.P., as it is one of the certificates in greatest demand from retailers. “GLOBALG.A.P may have originated in the vegetable sector, but the pressure from retailers is ever increasing in the horticultural sector, too.”
Thanks to the collaboration between MPS and GLOBAL.G.A.P., growers can be (and remain) eligible for MPS-ABC and GLOBALG.A.P. certification with a single audit in the future. Another advantage is that the grower is now free to choose the certification institution.
