Ukrainian producers of vegetables and fruits are preparing for certification according to Global G.A.P.

From September 4 to 9, an international certification consultant for Global G.A.P. Kliment Petrov visited several companies in the south of Ukraine and conducted their initial audit.

Dr. Kliment Petrov has a PhD Degree in Microbiology and Biochemistry, from the University of Nantes, France and the University of Sofia, Bulgaria. Dr. Petrov has MSc in Industrial Biotechnology and MSc in Environmental Biotechnology from the University of Sofia. He has more than 15 years of experience in the field of Food safety, Hygiene and specifically in IFA Global G.A.P. implementation, auditing and training.

Dr. Petrov has trained more than 1000 people within the last 10 years in GAP, including Global G.A.P. and QMS for Option 2 groups in USA, Trinidad and Tobago, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Kenya, Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, China, India, Israel, Japan, Thailand, Bangladesh, etc.

Together with the national consultants of the International Trade Center Alexei Yerokhin and Vladislav Faleev Kliment Petrov has visited 6 enterprises of southern Ukraine: “Vladam”, “Melnyk”, “Zorya Ingulu” (all from the Mykolaiv region). They grow tomatoes, onions, carrots, apples. In Kherson region experts visited “Euroservice Group” LLC and “Kamianske”, which are engaged in growing watermelons, melons, apples and plums. And in the Odessa region they visited the Cooperative “Gorih Prychornomorya”, where walnut, hazelnuts and wild rose are grown.

“During visits to the enterprises we checked fuel and pumping stations, fertilizer and pesticide warehouses, recreation and food staff, sanitary and hygienic zones, and others. Thanks to all project participants who decided to start the process of implementing the requirements of Global G.A.P international standard. I am confident we will manage, and within a year Ukrainian certified products will be on the shelves of international trade networks “, commented the national ITC consultant Vladislav Faleev.

In order to meet the requirements of time and be competitive not only on domestic but also on foreign markets, more and more Ukrainian producers of vegetables and fruits are seeking certificates such as Global G.A.P.

“We feel that markets are changing. The world does not stand still, production standards are constantly improving. We need to stay at a high level if we want to be successful. We are not the first to do this, there are a lot of companies which received certificates Global G.A.P. We will take their experience, cooperate with ITC experts and also receive certificates. After meeting Mr. Petrov with our agronomists and other staff we saw that our company is on a decent level in storage of vegetables and fertilizers, but there are still directions where it is possible to improve the working conditions “, says Sergey Kravtsov, head of the “Zorya Ingula”.

Visits to these companies were the next step in the certification of Ukrainian enterprises according to Global G.A.P. which is a part of the ITC project called “Linking Ukrainian SMEs in the Fruits and Vegetables Sector to Global and Domestic Markets and Value Chains”. On May 30-31 in the Kherson Chamber of Commerce and Industry was conducted a seminar on certification of Global G.A.P. for farmers called “Modern food safety system”.

The Global G.A.P. standard is a system that guarantees the safety of farm-grown products. The Global G.A.P standard is distinguished among all the other standards due to the fact that it assesses not only the safety of the farm-grown products but also the safety of the entire production cycle, from the feed and seed to the finished products.

The Global GAP standard is a unified integrated standard for primary production with the possibility of use of its individual modules for different groups of products from production of plant products to livestock breeding. With the Global G.A.P. Certificate you can prove your consumer (producer, distribution network) that all of your products are high quality and completely safe to use.