MPS Offering Remote Audits of Growing Operations During COVID-19
March 28, 2020 
The coronavirus crisis poses serious problems for the floriculture sector not only in the sale of their products, but in how their businesses are maintained. Representatives from MPS (More Profitable Sustainability), a Netherlands-based organization that manages sustainability certification for the international flower and ornamentals industry, say they understand that growers are in a difficult situation, and that sustainability may not be their top concern at the moment.
“We support the sector with this in mind, and we part of the same sector,” the organization noted in a recent statement. “While we understand that certification is not the number one priority at the moment, it is important to remain certified. When the situation returns to normal, the demand for certified products increases again.”
To prevent certificates from expiring, MPS is offering the option to have audits performed remotely. These remote audits consist of a check of the relevant documents in combination with remote interviews, and possibly a digital tour of the operation.
A remote audit is not possible for initial inspections, MPS says. In order to be able to award a certificate for the first time, a physical audit of the company must be carried out according to the conditions of the certification standard.
The consequences for the renewal of certificates after completion of a remote audit are as follows:
MPS-ABC: This is a business qualification which is issued on the basis of the usage registration of the participant. Audits and sampling are used to ensure the reliability of the registration. An MPS-ABC audit performed remotely, and therefore has no other consequences for the awarding of the certificate than an audit performed on the company.
MPS-GAP: MPS-GAP has been benchmarked against the certification standard of GLOBALG.A.P. For this reason, the guidelines of GLOBALG.A.P. are also used to renew certificates after a remote audit. In practice, this means that certificates can be extended by eight months after a remote audit. Within that time, an audit must be carried out on the company. MPS is in consultation with GLOBALG.A.P. to set the period for renewing the certificate to one year.
For the other MPS standards, certificates are renewed for a maximum period of one year. An exception to this are the MPS standards where the certificate has a validity of three years. In that case, after an interim audit, the original validity of the certificate remains, and after a reassessment audit, a certificate with a validity of three years can be issued again.
Certificates are suspended:
- If the conditions from the MPS certification standards are not met.
- If the organization is not operational and therefore cannot be audited.
- If the organization refuses to cooperate in the performance of a remote audit.
- If the remote audit cannot be performed because the organization does not have the infrastructure to facilitate a remote audit.
Sampling
For MPS-ABC and MPS-ProductProof certification standards, MPS uses independent samplers from a number of different laboratories.
“We are in close contact with the laboratories regarding the continuation of sampling during the corona crisis,” MPS says.
Growers who have questions can contact MPS Service & Support at [email protected] or go to https://my-mps.com.
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