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Spinneys, the Premier Supermarket Retailer in the Middle East, Joins GLOBALG.A.P. as a Member

Spinneys, the Premier Supermarket Retailer in the Middle East, Joins GLOBALG.A.P. as a Member.

Fine Fare Food Market LLC, which operates Spinneys, the premium supermarket retailer in the Middle East, has become the first in the region to join GLOBALG.A.P. as a retail member. This is in line with the company’s strategic decision to support a sustainable sourcing policy in order to benefit their farming partners, the environment, and their customers.

The company operates hypermarkets and supermarkets in Qatar, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan and, through a franchise agreement, 30 stores in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). GLOBALG.A.P. Membership confirms the company’s commitment to supporting initiatives that assure sustainable and safe products for consumers.

By December 2015, Spinneys UAE plans to import only GLOBALG.A.P. certified fruits and vegetables from South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, Kenya, and Europe. In 2016, the retailer will expand its sourcing policy and work with producers from other countries, including Sri Lanka, Australia and USA, to help them achieve GLOBALG.A.P. Certification.

“We welcome Spinneys as a member in our GLOBALG.A.P. Community,” said Kristian Moeller, CEO of GLOBALG.A.P. “This move will make GLOBALG.A.P. certified produce available also to consumers in the Middle East ‎and opens up a very interesting market for certified producers.”

First established in 1924 by Arthur Spinneys in the suburbs of Alexandria Egypt, Spinneys sold high quality fresh produce, grocery, and baked goods at a fair price and in a fresh and friendly shopping environment. By 1960, it had grown into a chain and succeeded in opening additional retail outlets in Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan and supplying food for petrol exploration teams across the Gulf region.

Spinneys opened its doors in Lebanon’s old Beirut Souks in 1948, followed by additional stores in various parts of the country in the 1970s, but unfortunately the stores closed due to the civil war at that time. Thirty years later, Spinneys pioneered the concept of a hypermarket in Lebanon and re-opened its doors in 1998 through one big store and seven other standalone outlets, in addition to regional expansion in the Middle East.

Spinneys was ranked one of the world’s 50 best grocers by UK based retail magazine The Grocer in 2013.

source: GLOBALG.A.P. media release

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GLOBALG.A.P. updates farm, feed standards and regulations to Version 5

The biggest revision in the history of GLOBALG.A.P. now incorporates the latest research as well as government requirements including compliance with proposed rules by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as well as EU Food Safety Law.

The GLOBALG.A.P. Board has announced the introduction of the update to Version 5 of its Integrated Farm Assurance Standard for Crops and Aquaculture. The update follows a four year routine cycle of continuous improvement, and with respect to stakeholder involvement and impact, the current revision has been the most comprehensive amendment to date. It will have a direct and significant effect on all 150,000 producers around the world certified in accordance with GLOBALG.A.P.

The new version is applicable immediately as early update choice in parallel to the current Version 4 and will be mandatory for all new and recertification audits by 1st July 2016. The biggest revision in the history of GLOBALG.A.P. now incorporates the latest research as well as government requirements including compliance with proposed rules by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as well as EU Food Safety Law. This once again underlines the fact that, although GLOBALG.A.P. is a private standard, it strives to incorporate applicable public and/or governmental guidelines and responds to new trends and threats in the Fruit & Vegetables, Feedstock and Aquaculture industries. In particular the update also addresses the issue of microbial risks.

GLOBALG.A.P. board member Hugh Mowat, from Wm Morrison Supermarkets Plc, said food safety has always been a key platform of the GLOBALG.A.P. Standard but ongoing food safety scares resulting from microbial contamination have seen it now take a proactive approach to strengthen existing controls. “These changes are science-based and will support growers by providing a safe framework within which to grow food, as well as protecting them in the event of an incident,” he said.

Guy Callebaut, vice-chairman of the Board VBT/BelOrta, grower, and GLOBALG.A.P. chairman, said major risks and trends in addition to food safety, such as the sustainable use of water, have been addressed. “With this comprehensive revision and our global spread we have strengthened our position as a global reference standard for good agricultural practices. We are also continuing to work against the trend of double standards and to contribute to the harmonization of standards in order to create incentives for farmers around the world to undertake safe and sustainable production,” Callebaut said.

Update also reflects public input

About 2,000 comments came in from all continents during two public consultation periods. These were reviewed by technical committees in extensive, time-consuming consultation to assess applicability and implementability.

Ignacio Antequera, technical key accounts, GLOBALG.A.P.said the major effort of Revision V5 would not have been possible without tremendous time commitment of all our committee members. For the last 4 years they invested a total of more than 2,600 expert hours. More than 110 organizations were represented in more than 70 days of meetings and webinars. I sincerely wish to thank all the stakeholders for their time and effort they have put in to make this revision a success.”

Read more about Version 5 and download the IFA Standard Documents for V5 here.