Receive qualification points for certified starting material MPS-ABC

To encourage greater sustainability throughout the whole supply chain, MPS-ABC participants are awarded up to 10 points when they use MPS-ABC certified starting material. Purchased starting material that is not MPS-ABC certified but that carries another certificate from a standard recognised by FSI as part of its ‘environmental basket’ qualifies for a maximum of five points.

When a crop is linked to a plot in the cultivation plan in the MPS record-keeping environment, you can select whether you have used certified starting material. At the moment, a distinction is still made between ‘MPS-ABC certified’ and ‘GLOBALG.A.P. certified’. The latter will soon be changed to ‘FSI environmental’, bringing the record-keeping environment back into line with the certification standard. If you currently use starting material that is both MPS-ABC and GLOBALG.A.P. certified, select ‘MPS-ABC certified’ in the record-keeping environment to obtain the maximum number of points.

Perennial crops from starting material bought without environmental certification can be registered as certified starting material once the crops have been at an MPS-ABC certified company for longer than one year.

During an audit, you must be able to show that your starting material was certified at the time of purchase. You can do this via the starting material module in the MPS record-keeping environment or via your own accounts, which must show the following:

• date of purchase;
• supplier;
• crop or crop category;
• quantity;
• certificates associated with the starting material (MPS-ABC or ‘FSI environmental’) (preferably with the suppliers’ MPS and/or GLOBALG.A.P. numbers).