GlobalGAP certificate for an orchard in 22 business days
The client needed the certificate 'for yesterday' to sign a contract with the Lidl chain. We fixed errors in the records and prepared the staff for the audit at express pace.
Marek called us on Thursday at 5:40 PM. He had the chance of a lifetime for a contract with Lidl for apple deliveries, but he lacked the GlobalGAP certificate, and the export window was closing in a month. At Meridian Greater Poland, we know that in agriculture time is literally money, so we got to work the next morning.
The challenge
The farm with an area of 42 hectares had significant backlogs in the paperwork. The previous consulting firm left them with incomplete plant protection product records from 2021, which did not meet the new standards. The biggest problem was the lack of current training for 14 seasonal workers and errors in fertilizer storage. Without improving these 16 flashpoints in 3 weeks, the auditor would have issued a negative assessment, and the contract for 480 tons of apples would have been lost to the competition.
Our approach
We sent two of our specialists to the site, who spent 4 consecutive business days in the orchard. Instead of writing boring reports, we took care of sorting the documents and physically checking the markings in the warehouses. We focused on what auditors check most carefully: batch traceability and food safety. We did a quick, concrete training for the team in the break between harvests, so as not to waste time on unnecessary theory.
The solution
We implemented a simple record-keeping system on a tablet, which shortened the time of daily entries by 1.4 hours. We prepared hygiene instructions in three languages so that every employee knew what to do. We also organized a mock internal audit 4 days before the visit of the certification body. We then caught 3 minor faults in the crate marking, which we fixed in less than 24 hours. Thanks to this, Marek went to the official audit without stress.
Results
The external audit ended with a 97.4% compliance result without any critical non-conformity. The farm obtained the GlobalGAP certificate in record time, which allowed for the dispatch of the first batch of apples to the Lidl chain already in the first week of September 2024.
Timeline
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August 02, 2024Quick analysis of gaps and review of warehouses on the farm.
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August 06, 2024Training of 14 employees and implementation of digital treatment records.
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August 14, 2024Mock audit and removal of the last errors in the documentation.
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August 24, 2024Official certification audit ended successfully.
"I was afraid that bureaucracy would block us and we'd lose the client because other advisors said it would take months. Meridian Greater Poland came to us immediately, organized the papers and watched the deadlines for me."