Why Choose GRASP and How to Get Started

GRASP helps you establish a good social management system on your farm(s). It offers buyers added assurance and helps protect one of the farm’s most important resources: Its people.

Choose GRASP to:

  1. Improve your farm’s social management system
  2. Learn how to strengthen your workers’ rights 
  3. Receive guidance on compliance with local social and labor regulations through national interpretation guidelines (NIGs) 
  4. Get support with creating communication channels between management and workers 
  5. Receive information on the core International Labour Organization conventions so that management and workers can develop and maintain a positive working environment 
  6. Study your risk exposure and identify corrective actions 
  7. Raise your standing among suppliers and buyers through communication and transparency 
  8. Reduce your risk of social legal non-compliances 
  9. Increase your cost efficiency and ease the audit burden by taking advantage of a simultaneous GRASP assessment with your GLOBALG.A.P. audits

How to get GRASP assessed

  • Designed to complement existing GLOBALG.A.P. certification, GRASP is assessed together with the Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA) audits.
  • A GLOBALG.A.P. approved certification body (CB) will conduct the assessment of your production facilities.
  • The assessment results are uploaded to the GLOBALG.A.P. IT systems, showing your compliance status. This is then visible to industry supply chain partners and buyers who have been granted access – so-called GRASP observers. 
  • GRASP assessments are conducted annually, with the result being valid for one year.

Who can implement the GRASP add-on?

  • Producers with IFA certification (or certification to a benchmarked scheme/checklist)*
  • All IFA Options eligible (1–4)
  • Farms around the world: GRASP is available in any country where a GLOBALG.A.P. approved CB is authorized to conduct an assessment

* For version 2, producers must achieve full compliance in the workers’ well-being section of IFA 

Which versions of IFA can be combined?

  • IFA v6 is combined with GRASP v2.
  • IFA v5 (v5.2 or v5.4-1-GFS) is combined with GRASP v1.3-1-i.
  • GRASP v1.3-1-i was published in June 2020 and became obligatory on 1 February 2021.
  • GRASP v2 was published on 26 April 2022. It replaces v1.3-1-i and becomes obligatory on 1 May 2023.

GETTING STARTED: Five steps to GRASP

1. Download the documents from the GLOBALG.A.P. website

GRASP general rules, the GRASP principles and criteria, and other supporting documents

2. Implement the checklist requirements and perform a self-assessment

Registered Trainers can provide assistance during assessment preparations.

3. Contact your CB and request an assessment

The GRASP assessment will take place together with your IFA audit.

4. CB performs on-site assessment and uploads results to GLOBALG.A.P. IT systems

All non-compliances must be closed within 28 days and verified by the CB.

5. Receive a letter of conformance/proof of assessment*

Assessment status is now visible in the GLOBALG.A.P. IT systems.

* GRASP v1.3-1-i assessments result in proof of assessment. GRASP v2 assessments result in a letter of conformance if successfully passed.

 

Find your GLOBALG.A.P. approved CB here.