THE WORLD - Across the industry, both sides of buy and supply are working to support sustainability within fresh produce. Teaming up with GLOBALG.A.P., a food safety certification company, Lidl announced that the two have collaborated on a new Biodiversity add-on to promote biodiversity in conventional fruit and vegetable production.

“Lidl’s initiative to promote farm-level biodiversity perfectly supports the aspirations of the GLOBALG.A.P. version 6 revision,” said Kristian Moeller, Managing Director, GLOBALG.A.P. “The Biodiversity add-on will help market participants better understand how to evaluate science-based biodiversity criteria in ways which can create value for fruit and vegetable farmers.”

The Biodiversity add-on is being developed in conjunction with GLOBALG.A.P.’s version 6 revision process, as noted by Moeller above, which will be completed with the launch of the new version 6 standard in 2022.

This add-on is planned for launch by the end of 2021 and is an addition to GLOBALG.A.P.’s Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA) standard for Fruit and Vegetables.

GLOBALG.A.P. offers these add-ons as customized solutions for safe and sustainable agriculture. According to a press release, the add-on will be publicly available, so that all fruit and vegetable producers can evaluate their agricultural practices against biodiversity criteria and communicate their environmental commitment to food retailers.

Lidl has been working to bring project partners and international experts together to further develop the guideline for biodiversity criteria. The GLOBALG.A.P. multi-stakeholder Environmental Sustainability Focus Group will be involved in the development of the new add-on. This focus group compiles comprehensive, science-based criteria on farm-level environmental sustainability.

How will this project initiate change for both the retailer and producers hoping to get their products in the door? AndNowUKnow will continue to report.

Lidl GLOBALG.A.P.