Today's technology and innovations have affected the agriculture sector as well as every sector; traditional production techniques were insufficient. In this sense, the interest of the industrialists in agriculture has increased and the capital movement has started to shift towards agriculture.
As a result of these investments, larger and higher-standard technological production areas were established. Food production has a very important strategy in today's world.
While half of the world is struggling with hunger, the other half wants the food they produce and consume to be safe.
When it comes to safe food, products that are not harmful to human health, that do not contain physical, chemical and microbiological residues, and that are traceable at the same time come to mind.
In order to improve production and sell the products we produce to the right markets, manufacturers and institutions and organizations that package, distribute, even store and market these products have very important responsibilities.
Today, traceability of agricultural products has become the most important issue in terms of ensuring food safety all over the world. Now the consumer wants to know the production process of the food that comes to his table.
There is a concept that arises from all these requirements that has influenced the entire agriculture and export sector in recent years.
This concept is good agricultural practices covering minimum agricultural production criteria. Retailers, which dominate the majority of the fresh fruit and vegetable market in Europe, aim to minimize certain risks that threaten human health in the fresh fruit and vegetable products they supply to their consumers in recent years. They came together in 1997 under the name of EUREP.
In 1999, they created the EUREPGAP standards, which form the basis of today's Good Agricultural Practices. The Eurepgap standard was revised in 2007 and accepted by all countries of the world and was named GLOBALGAP. With this protocol, retailers; They ask for assurance from the suppliers and therefore the manufacturers that "the product they put on their shelves will not harm their customers".
In Turkey, the Ministry of Agriculture did not remain indifferent to these developments and published the Good Agricultural Practices Regulation based on the same principles.
A set of agricultural standards that shape the Turkish Agricultural sector has now begun to be implemented. The Good Agricultural Practices Regulation was first published in the Official Gazette dated 08.09.2004 and numbered 25577.
The Good Agricultural Practices regulation was later revised on 7 December 2010 and became a more comprehensive set of standards.
It supports the continuous development of farming methods and technologies based on the principles of Good Agricultural Practices Hazard Prevention, Hazard Analysis (HACCP), Integrated Pest Control (IPM) and Integrated Crop Farming (ICM).
Good Agricultural Practices cover the full production process of the certified agricultural product from the period before planting the plant to the finished product process. Moreover; It also covers Food Safety, Animal Welfare, Environmental Protection and Occupational Health, Safety and Welfare.
Good Agricultural Practices; It is a type of agricultural production made in order to make a production that does not harm the environment, human and animal health, to protect natural resources, to ensure traceability and sustainability in agriculture and food safety.
The product with the Good Agricultural Practices certificate; It does not contain chemical, physical, microbiological residues, it is produced without polluting the environment and harming the natural balance; during its production, human, worker and other living things are not adversely affected; It is understood that it is produced in accordance with the agricultural legislation of the countries where it is produced and consumed.