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Steps Toward a Sustainable Future

By 2025, 100% of fresh produce and floral in Walmart stores will be sourced from suppliers with verified integrated pest management practices.

As part of ongoing efforts to make their supply chain more sustainable, Walmart has begun bolstering its fresh produce and floral strategies. Among these is the ambitious commitment the company has made to pollinator health, with a focus on biodiversity and integrated pest management (“IPM”). It’s easy to see why this has become a priority: 

Putting It in Practice

Walmart has partnered with a variety of global standard-owners to give its suppliers more than a dozen certification options that satisfy their requirements. 

Among the many certification options, GLOBALG.A.P. stands out as a leading authority for compliance.

GLOBALG.A.P. is a widely-accepted standard for good agricultural practices and food safety, benchmarked to GFSI requirements. Its updated v.6 Integrated Farm Assurance (“IFA”) certification is completely sufficient to satisfy Walmart’s U.S. pollinator health objectives. There are no finicky add-ons required. All of the guidance and required documents are available for download free of charge via GLOBALG.A.P.’s Document Center.

This collaboration has been key in integrating biodiversity requirements into Walmart’s supply chain policies, with bold plans to transform their produce and floral departments.

“The market demand for sustainability is only growing, and with GLOBALG.A.P.’s alignment to Walmart’s pollinator requirements, that doesn’t have to mean extra work.” 

- Roberta Anderson • President, GLOBALG.A.P. North America

Getting Certified

For American produce suppliers, GLOBALG.A.P. IFA streamlines compliance with both Walmart’s food safety and biodiversity prerequisites through a single audit and certificate.

Certification to GLOBALG.A.P.’s IFA standard can be simplified into five basic steps:

• Download the Requirements
  General regulations, principles and criteria, and final checklists can all be found free of charge on GLOBALG.A.P.’s website.
  
  
• Design Procedures
  Use the requirements to develop standard operating procedures, and conduct a self-assessment using the checklist. Registered trainers are available to assist.
  
  
• Begin Record-Keeping
  Put your procedures to work! Digital records can be completed on a smart food safety platform such as Provision to demonstrate the efficacy of your IPM program. 
  
  
• Get Audited
  Research and choose a GLOBALG.A.P.-approved certification body (“CB”) that suits your needs. The CB will conduct the audit and upload the results to the Audit Online Hub; any non-conformances must be corrected in the time specified by the CB prior to issuance of the certificate.
  
  
• Receive Your Certificate
  The CB will issue the certificate, with certification status publicly visible in the GLOBALG.A.P. IT systems for market transparency.

How to Streamline Compliance

Prepare your operation as pollinator requirements take off at a variety of retailers. The average Provision client is audit-ready in 53% less time than their prior method. 

As the marketplace demands more sustainability from consumer brands, the number of retailer requirements is only going to grow. In addition to Walmart, Whole Foods recently announced their own pollinator initiative – with plans to require preventative and biological-focused IPM systems of all growers by 2024. Kroger, too, has made the move to require IPM practices in all fresh produce by 2028 or 2030, based on supplier size.

These initiatives, paired with other regulatory requirements mean that record-keeping will boom – and manual processes will struggle to keep up.

Provision alleviates audit stress with smart digital records. Managers can automate tasks, rules, and reports to ensure records are complete and compliant, every day. Field staff benefit from in-app translation and live SOP guidance, limiting shoddy data and guesswork.

By saving time in compliance, fresh produce operations can be efficient enough to supply Walmart and other major retailers who have pollinator requirements alongside low-cost expectations.

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