Facilitating the Georgian Good Agricultural Practices (GeoGAP) standard in Georgia

Requesting party:

Georgian Farmers’ Association (GFA)

The involved institution

The Georgian Farmers’ Association (GFA), which was created in 2012, unites more than 3,900 farmers in Georgia and establishes its value to members by providing guidance in governmental programs; and by establishing links to service providers and sources of funding, markets and technical support. GFA focuses on representing its members’ interests and defending the rights of smallholder farmers through participation in policy development and active advocacy for fair access to markets and resources. GFA actively cooperates with governmental, donor and educational institutions and is a strong coordinator between farmers and all actors involved in agriculture.

Context

There is a strong and growing demand from consumers, retailers, suppliers and producers in Georgia for food safety standards to be established. GFA is working on the development and implementation of the Georgian Good Agricultural Practices (GeoGAP) standard, a certification scheme for primary agricultural producers. GeoGAP is based on the international standard GLOBALG.A.P., which is an internationally recognized set of farming standards based on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP). The principal objective of the scheme is to ensure safety and quality of agricultural products and sustainable practices among farmers, retailers, and consumers. GeoGAP is adjusted to the context and capabilities of smallholder farmers in Georgia.

As of today, micro and small farmers from Georgia are not able to comply with international standards. Through GeoGAP, which is tailored to local conditions, GFA will support local farmers in the process of adopting sustainable agricultural practices to be in line with food safety requirements, thus helping farmers to move towards European standards. In addition, this will help increase food safety on local markets and promote exports of high quality products from Georgia.

GFA’s vision for the GeoGAP scheme is to achieve recognition by the government and the high value domestic market buyers, including retailers and hospitality service, in order to raise demand for safe and local food. Raised demand amongst Georgia’s citizens and the large amount of tourists in a market environment flooded with highly-priced imported goods is expected to support local production of safe and quality food. GeoGAP therefore supports the sustainable development of a market for local and safe food, benefitting Georgia’s farmers.

Project goal and outputs

The aim of the TMT was to build capacity of GFA’s staff on food safety and quality, value chain management and auditing. A number of GFA member farmers and staff of the Georgian Farmers’ Distribution Company (GFDC), which works closely with GFA on supply chain management, also participated in the training weeks.

Food safety and quality

The crosscutting topic in among the training weeks was food safety and quality. The trainings built knowledge and skills in food safety and quality management by addressing international certification schemes such as GLOBALG.A.P. The participants gained knowledge on the content of these standards and worked on assignments of examples of implementation. Practical skills in implementation of GeoGAP were trained during multiple field visits to GFA member farms. Furthermore, the development of support documents was realised, including a handbook and multiple checklists for auditing in both the English and Georgian language.

Value chain management

The TMT also included a component on value chain management in order to capacitate GFA staff with knowledge and skills in analysing and effectively managing the Georgian value chains in partnership with the Georgian Farmers’ Distribution Company (GFDC), whose mission is to create a sophisticated, simple and continuous supply chain. GFDC’s aim is to strengthen local farming organizations and manage regulatory aspects and utilise opportunities to sell a wider range of primary and value added commodities including fresh fruits and vegetables. With the use of the Netchain Improvement Framework (NIMPF) tool in practical assignments, the trainees analysed several commodity value chains and identified opportunities for the application for GeoGAP certification as a marketing and value addition intervention.

Auditing

Lastly, an important topic in this TMT was auditing. The activity was in particular important in terms of capacity building of two external consultants of the independent certification body, LTD GFC, that was founded in partnership with GFDC. The trainees received both in-class and practical field training in auditing the GeoGAP standard. Main focus was to assure correct interpretation of all parts of the GeoGAP standard. Support by Star Consulting LTD, played an important role in this training to give explanation, where necessary, in Georgian language. The GFA staff now has the knowledge and skills to support farmers with implementation of GeoGAP and to conduct internal audits. LTD GFC is now trained to serve as external auditor for the supply chain company GFDC. 

Lessons learned

The farmers and GFA-staff learned the practical approach of standards implementation and are now looking beyond the compliance aspect of it. Practical experience is very important; to discuss the interpretation of compliance criteria and to see the different solutions in the field will help the farmers to improve their businesses.

One of the participants said: I wish there would be more practical and field days because theory is so interesting we were excited to implement and experience everything at the farm.

The part about value chain management was an eye-opener for some participants, they said: The training helped me to have a fresh view on my business, I have shared gained knowledge to my employees and thanks to networking I have found new markets to sell my apples. It’s better for the farmer to have short connections in the chain, instead of dealing with middle-man. When you, as a farmer, has straight connections with the end-user, you can ask for feedback about your product and you will get better market information.

For me GlobalG.A.P. was the most interesting part of the training, because it is a gateway to export to EU markets and Georgian farmers need to have modern standards as world develops very fast and we must not be backward, was also one of the remarks.

In some sessions some students were also attending, and one of the participants said: I am happy to have the chance to attend the training as a master student, I wish more students had the chance to experience new technologies and gain knowledge from field professionals. Maybe it will be a good idea to organize field trips or to give practical assignments for students how to improve a farmer’s business.