GLOBALG.A.P. · Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA) for primary production

GLOBALG.A.P. certification consulting for responsible farming your buyers can trace back to the farm.

Achieve GLOBALG.A.P. certification to the Integrated Farm Assurance standard, version 6, through a certification body approved by GLOBALG.A.P. and accredited to ISO/IEC 17065, in time for the season your buyer is planning around. Sterling's expert and experienced consultants turn the IFA principles and criteria into routines your people follow in the field, at the ponds and in the packing shed, set up the self-assessment or the producer group's QMS, and prepare you for the yearly audit, announced or not, in 60+ countries. We ensure successful certification for our clients.

Book a free discovery call Start the free readiness check

An all-inclusive proposal for the agreed scope: consulting, Effivity software, Sterling Academy access and internal auditor training, as applicable to your standard, set out in one proposal
A team of expert and experienced agricultural assurance consultants, advising on management systems across sectors and countries since 2003
The Sterling Promise: 100% on-time completion, 100% success, 8,100+ client engagements. Sterling does not certify; an accredited body audits and decides

GLOBALG.A.P. at a glance

Purpose: Independent assurance of good agricultural practice at farm level: food safety, the environment, workers' health, safety and welfare, and traceability
Relevant to: Producers of fruit and vegetables, flowers and ornamentals, combinable crops, plant propagation material, tea and hops, and aquaculture farms; individual producers, multisite operations and producer groups, including smallholders
Edition: IFA version 6, in two editions: Smart, which replaced version 5.2 on 1 January 2024, and GFS, recognised by GFSI for fruit and vegetables and for aquaculture, which replaced version 5.4-1-GFS on 1 January 2025
Certification: Audited every year by a certification body approved by GLOBALG.A.P. and accredited to ISO/IEC 17065; certificates are valid for twelve months and traced through the producer's 13-digit GGN
Sterling's role: Gap analysis against every applicable Major and Minor Must, the self-assessment or group QMS, records in Effivity, training, internal inspections and audit readiness, then Sustain™
Cost and timing: Total investment for a GLOBALG.A.P. farm assurance system depends on the current maturity of your processes, the scope, locations and number of employees. The process typically takes 3 to 9 months

8,100+ client engagements in 60+ countries.

GLOBALG.A.P. client experience

What it is

What is GLOBALG.A.P. and what is it used for?

GLOBALG.A.P. is the organisation and the certification system; Integrated Farm Assurance, IFA, is its core standard for primary production. An IFA certificate tells a customer that an independent certification body has audited the farm or aquaculture site against published principles and criteria for food safety, the environment, workers' health, safety and welfare, production processes and traceability. For plants the scope runs from before the crop is in the ground to the unprocessed product; for aquaculture it takes in hatchery, grow-out, harvest and postharvest work carried out by the same legal entity.

Certification belongs to a producer or a producer group, and every certificate holder carries a 13-digit GLOBALG.A.P. identification number, the GGN. The GGN is printed on delivery notes and sales invoices, marks certified product as it moves through the supply chain and lets a customer validate the certificate online. That traceability is what a customer relies on, and why a certificate from a body the scheme does not approve is of no use.

Current version. IFA is at version 6, published in two editions. IFA v6 Smart replaced version 5.2 on 1 January 2024; IFA v6 GFS, the edition for producers who need recognition by the Global Food Safety Initiative, replaced version 5.4-1-GFS on 1 January 2025. The fruit and vegetables principles and criteria were published on 29 September 2022 and have been valid since 1 October 2022. At the time of writing, September 2026, GFSI's list of recognised certification programmes names IFA GFS version 6.0 for plants (fruit and vegetables, GFSI scopes BI and BIII) and for aquaculture (finfish, crustaceans, molluscs and seaweed, scope AII), benchmarked against GFSI's 2020 requirements; the Smart edition is not on that list.

Who it is for

Who needs GLOBALG.A.P. certification?

IFA certifies what happens on the farm: crops from propagation to harvest and the handling of the producer's own product, and farmed fish, crustaceans, molluscs and seaweed from hatchery to postharvest. Four situations bring producers to Sterling:

A retailer, importer or exporter will not list the product without it. The requirement may read GLOBALG.A.P., IFA v6 GFS, "a GFSI-recognised farm standard" or GLOBALG.A.P. with GRASP. We pin down the edition, add-ons and certification bodies the customer accepts first.
Smallholders sell together through a cooperative, an association or an exporter. Option 2 makes the producer group the certificate holder: one quality management system, internal farm audits covering every member's sites each year, and a certification body that audits the QMS and a sample of members.
An aquaculture farm is moving into export supply chains. IFA for aquaculture covers food safety, the welfare of the farmed species, the environment, feed and traceability from hatchery to harvest, with GRASP as a mandatory add-on.
You hold a certificate, and every audit is a scramble. Records are written up the night before, logs do not reconcile with the store or the group's internal inspections are a formality. The system needs rebuilding around the season's real work.

Business benefits

How GLOBALG.A.P. wins listings, protects the crop and keeps the farm audit-ready all season

The commercial reason is access to customers who require it. The operational reason is that the principles and criteria make a farm settle questions it has left to habit: which product was sprayed on which block, by whom and at what rate, whether the harvest interval was respected, and where each lot went.

Listings that do not stall at supplier approvalA certificate the customer can validate against your GGN, in the edition and with the add-ons written into the supplier requirement.
Fewer residue and hygiene surprisesIntegrated pest management, controlled plant protection products, water and hygiene risks assessed, and laboratory results acted on before product leaves the farm.
Traceability that survives a recallCertified product identified by GGN and kept apart from other product, a mass balance that reconciles, and a recall procedure your team has actually rehearsed.
Smallholders inside the supply chainThe producer group option brings small farms under one certificate and one quality management system, with internal audits carried by the group rather than by each farm.
Workers who are safer and better looked afterHealth, safety and welfare built into daily routines in the field and the packing area, with GRASP available when a customer wants workers' conditions evaluated as well.
Answers ready for the sustainability questionnaireBiodiversity and habitats, energy efficiency, greenhouse gases, waste and water are principles of the Smart edition for fruit and vegetables, so the evidence already exists when a customer asks.

Requirements

What are the main GLOBALG.A.P. requirements?

IFA v6 is written as principles and criteria, and each criterion carries a level: Major Must, Minor Must or Recommendation. In the Smart edition for fruit and vegetables, certification requires compliance with every applicable Major Must and at least 95% of the applicable Minor Musts. The table maps that edition's 33 principles in plain language. Other scopes and the GFS edition have their own principles and criteria, so the map is redrawn for yours during the programme.

Principles (IFA v6 Smart, fruit and vegetables)	What it requires of you	What it looks like in practice
01–05 Internal documentation · continuous improvement plan · resource management and training · outsourced activities · specifications, suppliers and stock management	Keep the documentation the standard calls for, complete a documented self-assessment or internal farm and QMS audits at least once a year and before the certification body's audit, plan improvements, provide trained people and control subcontractors, suppliers and inputs in stock	A self-assessment covering every applicable site, product and topic; an improvement plan with owners and dates; training records; subcontractor agreements; input stock that matches the store
06–11 Traceability · parallel ownership, traceability and segregation · mass balance · recall and withdrawal · complaints · non-conforming products	Trace product to the site that produced it, identify certified product with the GGN and keep it apart from anything uncertified, balance quantities in and out, and manage recalls, complaints and nonconforming product	Lot codes from block to dispatch, a mass balance that reconciles, a tested recall procedure, a complaints log, rejected product recorded with its disposal
12–18 Laboratory testing · equipment and devices · food safety policy declaration · food defence · food fraud · logo use · GLOBALG.A.P. status	Manage laboratory testing and the equipment and measuring devices in use, complete the food safety policy declaration, assess food defence and food fraud, and use the logo, the GGN and your certification status only as the rules allow	Laboratory reports acted on, sprayers and scales checked, a signed policy declaration, food defence and food fraud assessments, the GGN on delivery notes and invoices
19–21 Hygiene · workers' health, safety and welfare · site management	Control hygiene risks to the product, protect the health, safety and welfare of the people who work on the farm, and manage each production site and the risks attached to it	Hygiene rules and facilities wherever product is harvested and handled, workers trained and equipped, first aid and welfare facilities, a record of each site with its risk assessment
22–25 Biodiversity and habitats · energy efficiency · greenhouse gases and climate change · waste management	Manage the farm's effect on biodiversity and habitats, use energy efficiently, address greenhouse gases and climate change, and deal with waste responsibly	A biodiversity plan for the farm and its surroundings, energy use recorded, the main emission sources identified, waste streams and their disposal routes
26–30 Plant propagation material · genetically modified organisms · soil and substrate management · fertilisers and biostimulants · water management	Control the quality and health of seeds and plants, any use of GMOs, soils and substrates, nutrient inputs, and the sources and use of water	Seed and plant quality records, soil and substrate records, fertiliser and biostimulant applications recorded by block, date and quantity, water sources mapped, assessed and tested
31–33 Integrated pest management · plant protection products · postharvest handling	Prevent and monitor pests before intervening, select, store, apply and record plant protection products correctly, and control the handling of product after harvest	Pest monitoring and intervention records, spray records matched to purchases, stock and the product label, a secure chemical store, hygiene and treatment records in the handling area
Aquaculture IFA v6 principles and criteria for aquaculture, with GRASP	Cover food safety, the welfare of the farmed species, workers' health, safety and welfare, environment and biodiversity, feed management, mass balance and traceability, and harvest and postharvest operations; GRASP is a mandatory add-on	Stocking, mortality and feed records by pond, cage or tank, water quality monitoring, welfare at harvest, traceability from hatchery to harvest, and the GRASP assessment of workers' conditions

What does useful GLOBALG.A.P. evidence look like?

A registration listing every site and product; a self-assessment or internal audit reports completed before the audit; spray and fertiliser records that reconcile with purchases and stock; water sources and test results; hygiene and worker training records; a mass balance by product; a recall test; and the GGN on every delivery note and sales invoice. Each is a register in Effivity, made on the day the work was done.

GLOBALG.A.P. principles and criteria explained, principle by principle

Certification process

How do you get GLOBALG.A.P. certified?

Only certification bodies that GLOBALG.A.P. has approved, under a licence and certification agreement, and that hold ISO/IEC 17065 accreditation for the relevant scope may certify. Sterling prepares your farm, group or aquaculture site and implements the system with your team; the approved certification body audits and decides, and the scheme's integrity programme monitors the certification bodies in turn.

01
Decide what the certificate will cover.Products or species, production sites, any product handling, the option (individual producer or producer group), the edition (Smart or GFS), the add-ons and the certification body your customer accepts.
02
Gap analysis: review current practice against the principles and criteria.Every applicable Major Must and Minor Must checked in the field and in the records, with actions, owners and dates agreed.
03
Register, implement and start recording.Registration with the chosen certification body, which issues your GGN; practices changed where they fall short; people trained; records kept in daily work, not written up later.
04
Self-assess or audit internally.A documented self-assessment for an individual producer, or internal farm and QMS audits for a group or a multisite operation with a QMS, at least once a year and before the certification body's audit, with findings closed.
05
Pass the certification body's audit.An off-site and an on-site stage; non-conformances closed within 28 days of the on-site closing meeting; for a group, the QMS audit and a sample of at least the square root of registered producers; then the decision and the certificate.
06
Stay certified, season after season.A twelve-month certificate, a new self-assessment or internal audit and a certification body audit every year, and possibly an unannounced audit at 48 hours' notice.

Check the route, not only the fee. Look up the proposed certification body on GLOBALG.A.P.'s list of approved bodies: an approved body issues accredited certificates, a provisionally approved one may issue non-accredited certificates to a limited number of producers only, and a suspended one may not issue or reissue certificates. Confirm its ISO/IEC 17065 accreditation for your scope with the accreditation body, and walk away from anyone offering a certificate without an audit of your farm. How to choose a credible GLOBALG.A.P. provider · The certification buyer's checklist

Cost

How much does GLOBALG.A.P. certification cost?

No single price fits: a grower with one block of table grapes and a cooperative of four hundred smallholders are different programmes. What stays the same is an all-inclusive proposal with every component named.

Cost component	What affects it
Consulting and implementation	The option and edition, the number of crops, species and sites, whether product handling is included, the maturity of a producer group's QMS, the add-ons, and how much of the work your team carries (Design™ or Drive™)
Independent certification	The approved certification body's audit time and travel, the sites and group members it must visit, the annual audit, and GLOBALG.A.P.'s registration and certificate licence fees under its published fee table
Internal resources	Time from farm managers, supervisors and internal inspectors; water, soil or residue analyses; works on chemical stores, hygiene or worker facilities; training hours during the season
Software and learning	Included in a Sterling engagement: Effivity carries the records and Sterling Academy trains your people, with users, courses and the access period set out in the proposal
Continued support	The next self-assessment or round of internal inspections, pre-audit reviews, unannounced-audit readiness, seasonal training, and edition or add-on changes under Sustain™

What moves the price

One farm, several farms under one owner or a producer group, and how many members
The crops or species in scope, and whether handling or packing is included
Smart or GFS, and add-ons such as GRASP or SPRING
The state of records, chemical storage, hygiene and worker facilities today
How close the harvest is, and how much of the work your team can carry

What a Sterling proposal always shows

Deliverables, responsibilities, assumptions and exclusions, set out in writing
The certification body's charges and GLOBALG.A.P. fees shown separately, so the programme cost is comparable
Effivity, training and Academy access listed, at no additional cost
Payments tied to deliverables rather than dates
One all-inclusive proposal. No surprises, ever

Timeline

How long does GLOBALG.A.P. certification take?

Three to nine months is the realistic range, and the growing season decides more of it than the paperwork does. A single grower with sound practices and a harvest approaching can be ready at the short end. A producer group building its QMS, training internal inspectors and auditing every member, or a farm whose chemical store, hygiene facilities or water testing need work, sits at the long end. We then agree the audit date with the certification body around your harvest and handling.

Phase	What determines the pace
Scope, edition and gap analysis	Access to the fields, ponds or handling areas and to existing records, and a quick decision on option, edition, add-ons and certification body
Practices and facilities	Changes to spraying, storage, hygiene, worker facilities or water arrangements, and how fast budget and contractors move
Records and self-assessment	The production cycle running under the system long enough to generate real records, followed by the self-assessment or the group's internal farm and QMS audits
Certification audit	The certification body's calendar, harvest timing, the off-site and on-site stages, and the 28 days allowed to close non-conformances

If a buyer's listing date, an export season or an expiring certificate fixes the timetable, tell us on the first call and we will plan backwards from it. A certificate date quoted before anyone has asked when you harvest is a guess, not a plan.

Challenges

Common GLOBALG.A.P. implementation challenges

Farms struggle with GLOBALG.A.P. in the same five places, and each has a practical fix.

Records are written up at the end of the season.

After initial certification, every certification body must audit at least 10% of its certificate holders unannounced each year, giving no more than 48 hours' notice. We move application, harvest and hygiene records into Effivity, so a missing entry is visible the same day.

Spray and fertiliser records do not reconcile with purchases and stock.

Auditors compare what was bought, what is in the store and what was applied. We connect purchases, stock and application records and check each product's authorised use on the crop, so the three agree without a reconstruction.

Product from other growers passes through your hands.

Buying in, or growing the same product under certified and uncertified conditions, brings in the parallel ownership and segregation principle and the mass balance. We map every inflow and set up a mass balance that reconciles by product.

The packhouse belongs to another company.

Handling of the producer's own product is included in the farm's certification; when a separate legal entity packs, handles, stores or labels it, that entity needs Chain of Custody certification. We set out who holds which certificate, so the GGN trail does not break between farm and customer.

The producer group's internal inspections are a formality.

The certification body audits the group's QMS and a sample of at least the square root of registered producers, so every member has to be ready, not only the showcase farms. We train internal inspectors and give the group one Effivity view of every member's findings and actions.

Your engagement

What your GLOBALG.A.P. engagement includes

A Sterling engagement covers the route from the first scoping call to a certificate your customer can validate by GGN, under one all-inclusive proposal and one accountable team.

Scope, edition, gap analysis and implementation plan
Option, sites, products and add-ons confirmed, and practice reviewed against every applicable Major and Minor Must, with actions, owners and dates agreed before work starts.
Farm assurance system and documentation
Procedures, risk assessments and record forms built around your crops or species, or the producer group's QMS, on Sterling's templates and with your team.
Effivity ISO & GRC software
Your GLOBALG.A.P. records run in Effivity from the first season, included with the engagement at no additional cost.
Training for everyone
Internal auditor and inspector training for a group or multisite operation, as applicable to your standard, plus preferential Sterling Academy access, including complimentary awareness training for your people as part of the engagement.
Self-assessment, internal inspections and QMS audit
The annual self-assessment, or the group's internal farm inspections and QMS audit, completed before the certification body arrives, with findings closed on evidence.
Certification readiness and support
Choosing and registering with an approved certification body, preparation for both audit stages, and support closing non-conformances until the certificate is issued.

Certification decisions remain with the independent certification body.

How we deliver

How Sterling supports your GLOBALG.A.P. implementation

Every GLOBALG.A.P. engagement runs on Sterling OS™, our delivery operating system: five phases, each with its deliverables, its decision owners and the evidence it has to produce. You decide how much of the work your own people take on; the method, the software and the accountability stay fixed.

01
Design™Guided implementation: your farm manager or group QMS team does the work, with Sterling's structure, templates and coaching in the field.
02
Drive™Fully managed consulting: Sterling consultants carry the agreed work with your supervisors, internal inspectors and members.
03
Sustain™After certification: the annual self-assessment or internal inspections, pre-audit reviews, readiness for an unannounced audit and training for each new season.
04
Automate™The farm assurance system in Effivity: registration data, field records, self-assessments, inspections, non-conformances and the mass balance in one workspace.
05
Revise™Smart to GFS, new add-ons such as GRASP or SPRING, Chain of Custody for a packhouse, new crops, sites or members, and future IFA versions.

At kick-off we fix the engagement team, the weekly working session, the deliverables and who decides what, with progress reviewed weekly, so a missing water test surfaces months before the audit, not during it.

How Sterling OS™ works

Often combined with

Standards organisations pair with GLOBALG.A.P.

Effivity · GLOBALG.A.P. farm assurance software, included in every engagement

How Effivity helps you fulfil, automate and simplify the requirements of GLOBALG.A.P. IFA version 6.

Every Sterling GLOBALG.A.P. engagement includes Effivity, the ISO and GRC automation platform built by the Sterling group and used in 50+ countries. Your consultant configures the workspace within the agreed scope around the principles and criteria for your crops or species: sites and products, application and harvest records, the self-assessment or the group's internal inspections, non-conformances and the mass balance. Sterling consulting clients get their Effivity subscription included with the engagement, at no additional cost.

Included in every engagement See Effivity

Effivity farm assurance workspace: Context of the Organisation dashboard — Effivity · Context of the Organisation dashboard

Internal documentation

Sites, products and the annual self-assessment

Sites, products and registration details in one place, and the self-assessment or internal farm audit completed against the checklist, with evidence for every non-compliance, before the audit.

Resource management and training

Workers, competence and subcontractors

Training records for every worker and crew, linked to Sterling Academy; the competence of spray operators and internal inspectors; subcontractors with their agreements and the evidence that they follow the same rules.

Traceability

Lots, GGN identification and mass balance

Harvest lots traced to block, pond or site; certified product identified by GGN and kept apart from anything else; a mass balance by product that reconciles quantities produced, bought in and sold.

Plant protection products

Spray records, chemical stock and IPM

Each application recorded with product, block, rate, operator and date and checked against purchases and the store; pest monitoring and the reasons for each intervention recorded, as integrated pest management expects.

Water management

Water, soil and fertilisers

Water sources with their risk assessments and test results; soil and substrate records; fertiliser and biostimulant applications by block, linked to the stock they came from.

Hygiene

Hygiene and workers' health, safety and welfare

Hygiene checks at harvest and in handling areas, protective equipment issued, first-aid and welfare facilities inspected, and incidents recorded with their follow-up.

Biodiversity and habitats

Habitats, energy, emissions and waste

The biodiversity plan and its actions, energy use by source, the main greenhouse gas sources and the waste register, kept as data ready for a customer's sustainability questionnaire.

Complaints

Complaints, recalls and nonconforming product

Complaints, rejected lots and audit findings raised, investigated and closed with root cause; recall tests recorded; certification body non-conformances tracked against the 28-day deadline.

What this means at the audit

A GLOBALG.A.P. auditor, sometimes with only 48 hours' notice, asks for the self-assessment, walks the fields or ponds, opens the spray, fertiliser and harvest records, checks them against the store and the invoices, tests the mass balance and asks a worker about hygiene. In Effivity each is a dated record with an owner and evidence, and Sustain™ keeps the same workspace running into the next season.

Effivity for GLOBALG.A.P.: the guide Effivity on effivity.com

In your engagement

Subscription included with the engagement, at no additional cost
Configured by your Sterling consultant within the agreed scope
Existing field records, member lists and assessments migrated
Admin and user training for managers, supervisors and internal inspectors
Modules for food safety, quality, environment and safety when you integrate other standards

GLOBALG.A.P. client experience

Client letters on file, available on request.

Client feedback wall: letters on file

Signed client letters for GLOBALG.A.P. are available on request. The client feedback wall lists every letter by standard.

How a GLOBALG.A.P. programme runs

From the farm to the packhouse, as one programme.

All case studies

01
Fresh produce for export: GLOBALG.A.P. on the farms, Chain of Custody and a food safety scheme at the packhouse
The usual route for a grower, producer group or exporter supplying retailers abroad. The farms, or the group through its QMS, are certified to IFA v6, in the GFS edition where GFSI recognition is required and with GRASP where the customer asks for it. A packhouse that is a separate company holds Chain of Custody, and Produce Handling Assurance or FSSC 22000 covers packing where a GFSI-recognised certificate is wanted. One Effivity workspace carries the farm and packhouse records.
How a farm-to-packhouse programme runs

Sterling Academy · GLOBALG.A.P. e-learning

Train every worker on the farm, not only the person who keeps the records.

Sterling Academy delivers short e-learning for a farm workforce and for the people who run the system: video lessons with checkpoints, a final exam and a numbered Certificate of Completion, verifiable online. Sterling consulting clients benefit from preferential course access and special pricing through their Sterling consultant, including complimentary awareness training for their people as part of the engagement.

GLOBALG.A.P. awareness for every worker, with the training records the standard expects
Practitioner courses for farm managers, supervisors and the group's QMS team
Internal auditor training for the people who will inspect and audit, as applicable to your standard, as part of the engagement
Completion tracked by farm, crew and member, with a status report ready for any audit day
Seasonal and new workers trained as they arrive, so records stay current through the harvest

Keep exploring

Explore more about GLOBALG.A.P.

Watch a video on how to get GLOBALG.A.P. certified here.
Watch a video on GLOBALG.A.P. requirements here.

GLOBALG.A.P. resources

Services for GLOBALG.A.P.

Why Sterling

Want successful GLOBALG.A.P. certification? Come to Sterling.

Whether you run one farm or coordinate hundreds of smallholders through a cooperative, Sterling builds farm assurance that works between the rows and holds up in front of an auditor, reconciling the customer's requirement with national rules on plant protection products, water and labour.

Management systems in 60+ countries since 2003

Food safety, quality and farm assurance systems built with growers, packers, processors and exporters, with one engagement team accountable wherever your farms and customers are.

All-inclusive proposal

Consulting, Effivity, training and Academy access in one proposal, with the certification body's charges and GLOBALG.A.P.'s fees identified separately. No surprises, ever.

Built for the field, not the office

Record forms a supervisor can complete during the working day, groups inspected member by member, and a farm that looks the same on the day of an unannounced audit as on the planned one.

Expert and experienced consultants

Consultants who have advised on management systems across sectors and countries since 2003, and who read the principles and criteria against your crop, your season and your customers, so the audit confirms a farm that already works that way.

Sterling vs the rest: the full comparison Explore GLOBALG.A.P. client experience

The Sterling Promise

What our GLOBALG.A.P. certification success guarantee means

100%on-time completion · success · 8,100+ client engagements

We stay with your farm or group until the agreed GLOBALG.A.P. certification outcome is reached, through implementation, the self-assessment or internal inspections, and the closure of any non-conformances the certification body raises. The software and learning included in the fee leave your team with a system it can run season after season.

The engagement defines the edition, the scope and option, the add-ons, the outcome and each party's responsibilities. Your organisation provides accurate information and applies the agreed practices. The approved certification body audits and keeps its certification decision. Our commitment covers the agreed certification support; it does not guarantee residue-free results, an audit without findings or approval by every customer.

After certification

What happens after GLOBALG.A.P. certification?

Certification runs in twelve-month cycles. Each year the farm or group renews its registration, completes a new self-assessment or round of internal farm and QMS audits, and is audited again before the certificate lapses. After the initial audit, any certificate holder can be among those the body audits unannounced.

Between audits the obligations continue: the GGN on every delivery note and sales invoice, certified product kept apart and the mass balance current, new and seasonal workers trained, and records made on the day. Under Sterling OS™ Sustain™ we run the self-assessment or the internal inspections with you, review the season's records before the audit.

FAQs

Frequently asked questions about GLOBALG.A.P.

What is the difference between GLOBALG.A.P. and IFA?

GLOBALG.A.P. is the organisation and brand behind a family of farm and supply-chain standards; Integrated Farm Assurance is its core farm standard, with principles and criteria for each production scope. When a customer asks for "GLOBALG.A.P. certification" it usually means an IFA certificate for the product you supply, sometimes with an add-on such as GRASP. The certificate is issued by a certification body GLOBALG.A.P. has approved, not by GLOBALG.A.P. itself.

Do we need IFA v6 Smart or IFA v6 GFS?

Follow the customer. GLOBALG.A.P. positions Smart as the edition for most producers and GFS for producers who need certification recognised by the Global Food Safety Initiative. If a supplier requirement requires GFSI recognition for fruit and vegetables or aquaculture, GFS answers it; if it simply says GLOBALG.A.P., confirm with the customer before you choose.

Is GLOBALG.A.P. recognised by GFSI?

The GFS edition is. At the time of writing, September 2026, GFSI's list of recognised programmes names IFA GFS version 6.0 for plants, covering fruit and vegetables under GFSI scopes BI (farming of plants) and BIII (pre-process handling of plant products), and for aquaculture under scope AII (farming of fish and seafood), benchmarked against GFSI's 2020 requirements. GLOBALG.A.P.'s Produce Handling Assurance and Harmonized Produce Safety Standard are on the list too; the Smart edition is not. Check the list, or ask us, when a contract depends on it.

What is a GGN, and how does a customer check our certificate?

The GGN is the 13-digit GLOBALG.A.P. Number that your certification body generates in the GLOBALG.A.P. IT platform when it confirms your registration. It identifies you and your certified product, it goes on delivery notes and sales invoices, and a customer can validate your certificate online with it. The GGN label, GLOBALG.A.P.'s consumer label, is a separate step, for which IFA certification is one of the requirements.

Can smallholders be certified together as a group?

Yes, under Option 2. The producer group is the certificate holder and runs a quality management system; its internal audits cover the QMS and every member's farm at least once a year and before the certification body arrives. The certification body then audits the QMS and a sample of at least the square root of the registered producers. For farms not yet ready for IFA, GLOBALG.A.P. also offers Primary Farm Assurance, an entry-level assessment of good agricultural practices designed for developing economies and emerging markets.

How long is a GLOBALG.A.P. certificate valid, and how often are we audited?

Twelve months, with a certification body audit every year. GLOBALG.A.P.'s rules allow the validity to be extended beyond twelve months by up to four months, under set conditions. In addition, after the initial audit, each certification body must audit at least 10% of its certificate holders unannounced every year, with no more than 48 hours' notice.

What are GRASP and SPRING, and do we need them?

Both are add-ons audited alongside IFA. GRASP, the GLOBALG.A.P. Risk Assessment on Social Practice, evaluates workers' health, safety and welfare at farm level and is mandatory for aquaculture. SPRING, the Sustainable Program for Irrigation and Groundwater Use, promotes responsible water management in plant production. For crops, whether you need either usually depends on what your customer specifies.

How does GLOBALG.A.P. relate to HACCP, ISO 22000 and FSSC 22000?

They cover different stages. IFA certifies primary production on the farm or aquaculture site. HACCP is the Codex method for controlling food safety hazards, applied most visibly where product is packed or processed; ISO 22000 is the food safety management system standard for organisations across the food chain, and FSSC 22000 is the GFSI-recognised scheme built on it for the chain after primary production. A grower that also processes often needs IFA for the farms and one of these for the plant.

Does Sterling issue the GLOBALG.A.P. certificate?

No. Sterling guides the system into place with you, trains your people and prepares the farm or group. A certification body approved by GLOBALG.A.P. and accredited to ISO/IEC 17065 audits and decides, and the certificate can then be validated against your GGN. A consultant who also sells you the certificate is selling paper.

Before the first call

Prepare a useful GLOBALG.A.P. readiness brief

No documents are needed before the first conversation, only a plain account of the farm, the product and who is asking. Seven questions cover it:

Who is asking, and in what words: GLOBALG.A.P., IFA v6 GFS, "GFSI-recognised", GRASP or a named certification body?
Which crops or species, which production sites and which handling or packing should the certificate cover?
Is this one farm, several farms under one owner, or growers selling together as a group, and how many members?
What do you hold today: nothing, a GLOBALG.A.P. certificate, or another scheme, and when does it expire?
How are plant protection products, fertilisers, feed and water bought, stored, applied and recorded now?
Who packs, stores and labels the product, and is that your company or another one?
When is the next harvest or stocking cycle, who can take decisions, and does a customer's listing date fix the timetable?

Those answers are enough to size the work and prepare a realistic all-inclusive proposal. They prepare a conversation; they are neither a scored assessment nor an audit.

Don’t be fooled by certification scams

If it takes ten days, it is not GLOBALG.A.P. certification.

A GLOBALG.A.P. certificate is worth what a customer can verify: an approved and accredited certification body, the right scope and edition, and a status that shows against your GGN. The market also sells imitations: certificates from bodies that are not on GLOBALG.A.P.'s list, "GAP compliant" letters that certify nothing, and audits nobody attended. They cost less until an importer checks the GGN.

How to choose a credible GLOBALG.A.P. provider

Ask which certification body will issue the certificate and look it up on GLOBALG.A.P.'s list: only an approved body issues accredited certificates without limit, a provisionally approved body may issue non-accredited certificates to a limited number of producers, and a suspended one may not issue or reissue certificates at all.
Confirm the body's ISO/IEC 17065 accreditation for your scope with the accreditation body itself. GLOBALG.A.P. accepts accreditation bodies that have signed a memorandum of understanding with the scheme owner and are signatories, for product certification, of the Global ACI arrangement, which replaced the IAF MLA and ILAC MRA.
Validate the certificate by GGN before you rely on it. If the number cannot be checked through GLOBALG.A.P.'s validation service, your customer has nothing to rely on either.
Ask who will walk your fields, ponds and chemical stores, and when. A farm system written without seeing the farm describes somebody else's.
Find out what your workers will be taught and where the records will live. Without training and a working record system, the logs stop when the consultant leaves and the next audit starts from zero.
Refuse "certified in 7 to 10 days", "no farm visit needed" and a single invoice for consulting and certificate. Practices and records must exist, and an approved body must audit them, before any GLOBALG.A.P. certificate is issued.

All ten warning signs of shortcut certification

What GLOBALG.A.P. certification always involves

Registration with an approved certification body, which issues your GGN
Practices in place and records kept long enough to audit, in months, not days
A documented self-assessment, or internal farm and QMS audits, before the certification body's audit
An audit by an approved, ISO/IEC 17065-accredited certification body, with an off-site and an on-site stage
Every applicable Major Must met, and non-conformances closed within 28 days
A certificate valid for twelve months, renewed through an audit every year
Unannounced audits for at least 10% of each body's certificate holders, with 48 hours' notice at most

Sterling's position. Sterling does not certify. We consult, train and prepare; the approved, accredited certification body audits and decides. Certificates without implementation are not something we sell, and if an offer you have received amounts to one, we will say so. A certificate that cannot be validated against its GGN will not carry product past a customer's check.

Holding a GLOBALG.A.P. certificate, or an offer of one, that you are unsure about? Send it to us and we will check, at no charge, whether it would pass an importer's verification.

Keep exploring

More on GLOBALG.A.P. and related standards

Plan your GLOBALG.A.P. certification with confidence.

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