Sustainable flower growing in Africa: Trust through certification

One such piece is certification. It might seem like dry subject matter at first glance, but when you dive deeper, it becomes truly fascinating. Let’s take a closer look…

There are countless certifications, with one of the best-known being FairTrade, which focuses on fair working conditions among other aspects. However, there are many others. To help make sense of this “forest of certifications,” the floriculture sector established the Floriculture Sustainability Initiative (FSI). This global network promotes sustainable practices and environmental and social responsibility within the flower supply chain. FSI aims for 90% responsibly grown and traded flowers and plants by 2025.

It uses a “basket of standards” consisting of 16 sustainability standards. These focus on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), environmental and social responsibility, or a combination of these areas. Marginpar joined FSI in its early years, embracing sustainability as a core value.

Marginpar has 17 farms across four countries: Kenya, Ethiopia (own farms), Tanzania, and Zimbabwe (partner farms). To ensure FSI compliance and sustainable practices, all our farms are certified across three areas: Environmental, Social, and GAP. We use the term ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) to refer to the different aspects of sustainability.

Not all certifications are the same. For example, the MPS label is divided into three parts. MPS-ABC for the Environment component (where A+ is the highest attainable); MPS SQ for the social component and MPS GAP for sustainable and safe farming practices. In comparison, the Kenya Flower Council label (KFC) has combined all three of these components into one certificate.

Below is an overview of the Marginpar flower farms and their certifications:

• Kenya: 7 flower farms – KFC Silver Label

• Ethiopia: 3 flower farms – MPS-ABC (score A) & MPS-SQ & GlobalG.A.P.

• Tanzania: 3 partner farms– MPS-ABC (score A), MPS-GAP & MPS-SQ

• Zimbabwe: 4 partner farms – partly fully MPS certified and partly still in the certification process

As mentioned earlier, certifications focus on three main areas: Good Agricultural Practices, Environmental, and Social Responsibility.

When diving deeper, audits assess additional aspects such as HR policies, governance, health and safety, nature conservation, production methods, fertilisers, and pest management.

Certifications are typically valid for a year. This means farms undergo annual audits, often spanning several days. Let’s take the KFC Silver label as an example to illustrate the process.

The audit consists of:

1. Interviews with employees

2. Facility inspections

3. Review of relevant documents

Interview checklists may include questions about HR policies, parental leave, working hours, and holidays. Facility inspections ensure compliance with technical specifications. Document reviews verify adherence to - among others - hygiene and safety standards, integrated pest management practices, and spray and fertiliser records.

After the audit, the farm receives a score and has 28 days to address any non-conformities. Upon passing, the farm is awarded the KFC Silver label. This process is repeated annually, with the possibility of unannounced inspections in between.

Sound simple? We have deliberately kept it concise because the whole process contains so many details and requirements that most readers wouldn’t reach the end of the article otherwise. For instance, the ‘Good Agricultural Practices’ section alone consists of 11 pages of checkpoints...

Sustainability is a journey of continuous improvement. On their farms, Marginpar strives to make incremental progress every day. Certification supports us in this. The information and data we gain from the process are invaluable, providing new insights and helping us to keep improving—resulting in the most beautiful flowers.

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