Harmonization

There have been several discussions over the years on developing a comprehensive standard that will cover all requirements from a certification point of view. Surprisingly, there has been very little forward momentum in Europe and Asia/Pacific.

However, the movement afoot in North America, being led by United Fresh, seems to have gained significant ground. For those not familiar with Harmonization effort, it seeks to reconcile various GAP standards into a single applicable standard, that will be acceptable to everyone. In theory, this will replace such standards as GlobalGAP, SQF 1000, Tesco to name a few.

The goal for the Harmonization standard is for a draft to be completed around October. It would then be presented to various stakeholders to gain approval.

While the concept is a good one, some are skeptical of any potential for success. The retailer standards, for example Tesco, have been notorious for insisting upon their own standard, and their own standard only.

Where retailers are a little more open to a variety of standards however, this should gain rapid recognition - after all, it's combining a number of separate standards into one 'super' standard, so to speak.