FARM SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT (FSA)

WHAT IS THAT

The Farm Sustainability Assessment (FSA) standard was developed by SAI Platform to provide a set of verifiable requirements for sustainable agriculture, on which the food and beverage industry is aligned with the aim of promoting the sustainable production of agricultural products.

The FSA standard was in fact conceived with a business-to-business approach precisely to ensure that agricultural raw materials are produced in compliance with certain requirements.

Used for self-assessment and third-party verification, the program requires the use of a farm checklist , focuses on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and follows the three pillars of sustainability:

• People
• Planet
• Profit

The standard is aimed at individual farms of all sizes, but also at producer groups (Farm Management Group).

All standard documents are freely available on the SAI Platform website.

CSQA is recognized by SAI Plattform for carrying out third party audits against the FSA standard .

KEY POINTS

FSA 2.1 consists of 112 requirements covering social, environmental, economic and management aspects and is applicable to all cultivated plant products.
The companies or agricultural management groups that implement the FSA standard will have to define the level of performance (bronze, silver or gold) as part of their self-monitoring.

The third party verification aims to verify the level of performance achieved by the organization and to confirm the performance level claim which, after the release of the FSA certificate by CSQA, can then be communicated externally by the organization.

The FSA standard was conceived with a business-to-business approach, therefore the claim cannot be used on the finished product intended for the consumer, but can be communicated through, for example, websites and social media or it can be communicated to the customer who requests FSA verified raw materials.

SAI AGREEMENT - GLOBALG.AP the GGFSA ADD-ON
SAI Platform, with the aim of avoiding duplication of checks for those who are already GLOBALG.AP certified, has developed the ADD-ON GGFSA in agreement with GLOBALG.AP. It is a GLOBALG.AP add-on module consisting of a checklist of 20 questions to be assessed jointly with GLOBALG.AP
The result of the evaluation is the Letter of Attestation which reports the level reached by the company (gold, silver, bronze).

ADVANTAGES

• It supports the sustainability of production along the entire supply chain
• Satisfies customer requests on social and environmental issues
• Improves long-term economic prospects