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Focus!

Since FairMatch Support mainly focuses on food products for the European market, we have selected those certification systems that are often used within the EU food sector.

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Within this portal 14 different standards are described, ranging from social, to fair trade, to food safety to organic schemes. Every standard is explained according to the same features, enabling you to make a comparison between them.

1. What is the objective of the standard? Is the focus of the standard on economic, social, environmental, food safety or organic issues?

2. Why should you do this? Who is asking you to use this system? Is it a market requirement or a voluntary system?

3. Which operations are under scope of the standard? What kind of processes within your organisation/company should be changed according to the standard’s criteria? Most systems look at the production process, and/or look at the processing of the produce. Some systems look at organisational processes as well, e.g. if democratic structures are in place, how support departments are organized (HRM/financial), if internal control systems are in place, if ILO labour conditions are implemented, etcetera. Additionally the processes of your suppliers or service provider can be part of the standards’ scope as well. This means that you are responsible for the sustainability of their (or part of their) actions as well.

4. Who should/can apply? Not every code or standard can be used by every actor within the supply chain. Some are just targeted to a specific group within the chain, others focus on the complete chain. You can think of the following parties: producers/producer group, processor, exporter/trader, importer, retailer.

5. What kind of products? Most systems focus on specific products, product groups or sectors. Please look carefully if you produce falls under the scope of the standard.

6. Where are your markets? Although most systems are used worldwide, they often have their origin or focus in a specific country or region. Some countries/regions prefer a certain code or standard.

7. What are the benefits? A very legitimate question is what this specific certification means to you. Does it provide you access to markets, or even to niche markets? Does it guarantee a better price, or maybe even a premium on top of a minimum price? Does it create better access to support services?

8. What kind of support services are available? To be able to comply with the requirements of such systems, you may need some support. Various experts in the field of certification are available and can give this (paid/free) support.

9. Adaptations/investments you may have to do? Working with these certification systems and implementing the necessary steps is often not an easy task. You have to be aware of the many implications and adaptations you may have to make. This section gives some examples of the kind of investments you to have to think of.

10. What are the costs & time frame of certification? Very important to consider are the costs and time it will take you to convert your processes/organisation to the code or standard.

11. What are the system characteristics? In this section you will find a link to the standard itself and some main points of attention.

12. What is the way of verification? How is compliance with the standard verified? What annual checks and balances are to be made by yourselves (internal auditor) or a third party (external control)?

13. What is the type of label? One of ways to show that a product complies with a specific standard is to label it. Some codes or standards do not use a label at all. Nevertheless, most choose to carry a Business to Business (B2B) or a Consumer label.

14. Who's behind it? What is the origin of the standard, and who has initiated the idea? Who is the owner of the certification system?

15. Trends. The trend section is mainly based on future perspectives of the standard. Are they going to expand to other products, other markets? Is there increasing interest from markets for this specific certification? What can you expect in the coming period?

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Scope and limitations

As you can see from our website, FairMatch Support is neither a standard setter nor a certification body. We have simply highlighted a number of issues that are important for our work and to our target group. This overview does therefore not intend to be exhaustive. Information provided is based on our experience and interpretation. Hence, although we have tried to be as accurate as possible in this portal, you always need to check the links provided to the original sources of information.

This portal was prepared in March 2008 and will be updated annually. We will try, but cannot guarantee, to renew the links regularly so that you will always be linked to the most recent version of the source documents.