An increasing number of growers are joining growers' associations or cooperations. At the request of growers' association Decorum and Italian and Japanese cooperations, a method was developed which allows for the calculation of one joint qualification for a group of companies.

The advantage of a group qualification is that the entire growers' association or cooperation can use one joint qualification to profile themselves.

During the past six months, a pilot was carried out to test the calculation methods and guidelines for group qualification. In addition to the existing guidelines for individual MPS-ABC participants, a limited number of extra guidelines was introduced. These focus primarily on the tasks of the group owner, who is responsible for the entire group. The company can continue to use its individual MPS-ABC qualification in addition to the group qualification.

The MPS-ABC group qualification is determined by the average number of points of the group's companies. For MPS-A, the group needs to achieve an average of at least 70 points. And there are a number of additional requirements. All individual companies for instance need to achieve at least 55 points before the group can qualify for MPS-A.

The full guidelines for group qualifications and the agreement are available below:

Interested in receiving more information about the possibilities of MPS-ABC group qualification? Then please contact the MPS Service Team: +31 (0)174 - 615 715