UTZ Certified and FLOCERT are pleased to announce a new collaboration agreement that will enable combined UTZ and Fairtrade audits. FLOCERT has become an UTZ approved certification body and can now conduct audits in sustainable coffee production in selected countries in Central America, black tea in several countries in Africa, and rooibos tea in South Africa.
The audits are conducted against the strict criteria as described in the UTZ Code of Conduct for coffee, tea and rooibos. In Mexico and Guatemala, FLOCERT will work with two subcontracted certification bodies, which are already working within the UTZ Certified scope, to perform the audits.
To producers or producer groups that want to be certified for more than one standard, combining audits brings about important benefits. Auditors check requirements for both the Fairtrade and UTZ Certified standards in one visit, which keeps down costs and also leaves them more time to focus on their core business.
The agreement with UTZ Certified ties in with FLOCERT’s strategy to offer multi-certified customers the possibility to combine their Fairtrade audits with the audits for other schemes. With this approach, FLOCERT supports the Fairtrade strategy to increase the benefits for producers. Fairtrade International actively supports the partnership.
UTZ is a strong proponent of combined auditing and has been promoting this since its inception. UTZ works with around 55 non-exclusive third-party certification bodies for auditing and certification worldwide, and is happy to add FLOCERT to this list.
UTZ believes it is not only more credible and scalable to outsource auditing; it also promotes cost efficiency ultimately reducing costs for producers.
