GLOBALG.A.P. IFA v6 in Morocco: A Guide for Fresh Produce Exporters

What does GLOBALG.A.P. IFA v6 certify, and which exporters need it?

IFA v6 certifies a farm’s practices, from pre-harvest activities to post-harvest handling. The certificate is issued at the “IFA for plants” scope level, lists products one by one and is valid for one year. It concerns any exporter of fresh fruit and vegetables whose buyer asks for it, from a tomato greenhouse in Chtouka-Aït Baha, south of Agadir, to a citrus orchard in the Souss valley.

According to GLOBALG.A.P.’s IFA fruit and vegetables page, compliance is audited every year by an accredited, independent certification body, which the producer chooses from the bodies approved by GLOBALG.A.P. and active in the country. Only products on the list published by GLOBALG.A.P. can be registered.

For a fruit and vegetable exporter in the Agadir area, three situations come up again and again:

• The exporter that grows its own produce on one or several farms: it aims for individual certification, single-site or multi-site.
• The exporter that buys from smallholders: it either brings them into a certified producer group, or buys from growers who are already certified and checks the edition and scope of each certificate.
• The exporter that packs in its own packhouse: the packhouse is a product handling unit (PHU) included in the scope, and it may also hold a factory-level certificate.

The last case needs a closer look. According to GLOBALG.A.P.’s Technical News of April 2025, if the packhouse already holds a GFSI-recognised post-farm-gate certification for scope BIII, the pre-process handling of plant products, the GLOBALG.A.P. auditor checks as a minimum segregation, traceability, post-harvest treatments and a list of sections set by GLOBALG.A.P., including workers’ health, safety and welfare and plant protection products. In case of doubt, the auditor can re-audit the rest. A BRCGS or IFS certificate on the packhouse therefore lightens the GLOBALG.A.P. audit without removing it.

Our GLOBALG.A.P., SQF and PrimusGFS hub shows which standard fits each link of the chain, from the plot to the cold store. This guide goes into the rules of IFA v6 itself.

Smart or GFS: what actually changes in the rules?

The scope is the same; the General Regulations differ. GLOBALG.A.P. presents the two editions as parallel and equally valid: Smart suits the majority of producers, while GFS is built for those who need GFSI recognition. So you choose the edition with your buyer, then apply its rules.

IFA v6 was published in April 2022. The Smart edition replaced version 5.2 on 1 January 2024; the GFS edition replaced version 5.4-1-GFS on 1 January 2025, after GFSI recognition. The table compares the rules we read in the General Regulations for individual producers and in those for producer groups and multisite producers with QMS, version 6.0 of September 2022.

The notion of high risk belongs to the GFS edition, and it weighs heavily on some Moroccan supply chains. A member or a handling unit is classified as high-risk when a high-risk product is combined with a high-risk process. The rules name fresh herbs, leafy greens, berries and cantaloupe melons as high-risk products, the current list being the products marked “HR” in the GLOBALG.A.P. product list. The high-risk processes are post-harvest use of water, ice or steam; water touching the edible part of the product before or during harvest; and raw organic manure applied less than 60 days before harvest. In a blueberry producer group, a packhouse that washes the fruit is therefore audited every year, and so is every member that irrigates with sprinklers over the plants.

If a buyer simply writes “GLOBALG.A.P.”, ask for the edition in writing. A BRCGS- or IFS-certified packhouse that buys your fruit may also have a view: according to GLOBALG.A.P., the GFS edition is accepted by such sites, and the Smart edition may be, with additional requirements of their own.

Which certification option: individual, multi-site or producer group?

The one that matches the real legal structure of production. The option does not change the farm’s control points; it changes who holds the certificate, who checks whom, and how many sites the certification body visits.

Options 3 and 4 are their equivalents for a scheme benchmarked against GLOBALG.A.P.; they only concern producers who follow such a scheme.

What Option 2 requires of the group

The Technical News of November 2024 defines a producer group as three or more producers organised under a quality management system (QMS); the legal entity that manages this QMS is the only certificate holder. The group rules add concrete obligations:

• a written contract with each member, covering its commitment to the standard and to the group’s procedures and the sanctions that apply;
• an internal register of members, their plots, products and status after the last internal audit;
• a QMS manager and trained internal auditors, independent of the members they check;
• an internal audit of each member at least once a year, against all control points, with the treatment records checked on the farm;
• a mass balance at least once a year for each product, and a withdrawal procedure tested every year;
• a sanctions system applied to all members.

A member cannot sell in its own name with reference to the group certificate, and whatever it sells without reference to the certificate must appear in the group’s mass balance. For a citrus cooperative near Taroudant whose members also sell on the local market, this tracking has to be organised from the start.

Should you add GRASP, and what does it change in Morocco?

Yes, if the buyer asks for it. GRASP, GLOBALG.A.P.’s Risk Assessment on Social Practice, is generally voluntary; it is mandatory for aquaculture and for producers in the GGN label, and some buyers require it. According to the GRASP page, version 2, published in September 2022, can be combined with Smart as well as GFS and leads to a letter of conformance valid for one year, not a certificate.

Three rules have a direct effect on a Moroccan farm:

1. Morocco is classified as high-risk for GRASP. GLOBALG.A.P.’s list of high-risk countries, valid from 31 May to 31 December 2026, includes Morocco. This classification sets the method of proof: in a high-risk country, workers must be present on the farm on the day of the assessment, and the level of evidence required is higher. The classification is based on the governance indicators the World Bank publishes every year; as of 6 November 2026, the list applicable in 2027 had not yet been published: check it before planning an assessment in 2027.
2. A national guideline exists. The November 2024 Technical News lists Morocco among the countries where certification bodies shall apply the GRASP v2 national interpretation guideline. It translates the criteria into the framework of Moroccan labour law; where two rules apply, the one more protective of workers prevails.
3. Labour providers are part of the assessment. GRASP v2 applies to any subcontractor that supplies labour for the main farming activities. A harvest crew provided by a labour contractor in Souss-Massa is assessed in the same way as your own employees.

To pass, a farm must meet 100% of the “Major Must” requirements and at least 70% of the “Minor Must” requirements in the first year, then 75%. The assessment takes place together with the IFA audit, by the same certification body. Under Option 2, all IFA-certified members are registered for GRASP, and the sample assessed is the same as the one used for the IFA audit.

The GRASP v2 topics and the evidence to prepare are set out on our GLOBALG.A.P. hub. One last point: according to GLOBALG.A.P., some retailers consider other social programmes comparable to GRASP. If you already have a social audit, ask the buyer whether it accepts it before adding a second one.

How does certification work, step by step?

GLOBALG.A.P. sums up the path in five steps: download the documents, implement the requirements, request an audit from a certification body, undergo the audit, receive the certificate. The General Regulations set the deadlines and conditions of each step.

Four rules often decide an exporter’s calendar:

• No retroactive certification. Products harvested before registration cannot be included.
• No certification of future production. A product only goes on the certificate once every applicable control point has been audited during its production: the audit falls in the middle of the season.
• Three months to close the non-conformances of a first audit. After that, a complete audit is carried out again before any certificate is issued.
• A window for subsequent audits. The renewal audit can take place from four months before the certificate expires, and up to four months after if the certification body extends its validity.

Before booking the audit, check these points:

• Each buyer has confirmed in writing the edition (Smart or GFS), the add-ons and the deadline.
  
• The certification option matches the legal structure: one producer, several sites, or a group of at least three members.
  
• Every product to be certified is on the GLOBALG.A.P. product list, with its plots and areas.
  
• Registration with the certification body comes before the harvest of the products to be certified.
  
• Records cover at least three months before the audit date.
  
• The self-assessment or internal audits cover all sites, all products and all handling units.
  
• For a group under the GFS edition, the high-risk classification of members and handling units is known.
  
• If GRASP is required, crews and labour providers will be present on the day of the assessment.
  
• The audit date falls during harvest or handling.
  

Field preparation, from treatment records to water and seasonal crews, is covered in our checklist to prepare a GLOBALG.A.P. inspection in the Souss. What drives budget and timeline is set out in our article on GLOBALG.A.P. certification cost.

Where do SQF Edition 10 and PrimusGFS fit next to IFA v6?

As alternatives, when a buyer names them. SQF and PrimusGFS cover the farm, the packhouse, the plant and the warehouse under one name; IFA v6 stays focused on the farm and its handling.

• SQF. According to the SQFI FAQ, Edition 9 remains the only GFSI-recognised SQF programme until Edition 10 is recognised; Edition 10 audits are expected from January 2027, subject to benchmarking. Edition 10 was published in March 2026 and requires every site to have a food safety culture assessment plan.
• PrimusGFS. GFSI recognises it for crops, pre-processing handling of plant products, processing and storage. PrimusGFS v4.0 is among the programmes being benchmarked against V2024: ask your certification body which version will be audited.

The same benchmarking covers IFA GFS fruit and vegetables, submitted as version 6.1. To compare these programmes with BRCGS, IFS and FSSC 22000, read our BRCGS vs IFS vs FSSC 22000 comparison. To see how a buyer checks the edition of a cherry tomato packhouse’s certificate, read our case study of a European importer and three Moroccan suppliers.