February 13th 2024

Certification Management Committee (CMC) decisions

The CMC will convene again Thursday February 15th

Key updates

User Manual for the RACP registration of UEBT/RA certificate holders published

We have published the new user manual in the Knowledge Hub:  https://knowledge.rainforest-alliance.org/v1/docs/uebt-ra-user-manual 

UEBT/RA certified members need to register in RACP after they have been certified by UEBT against the UEBT/RA standard to access MultiTrace and report their sales. This manual explains the registration process to them and helps us guiding UEBT/RA members through the RACP registration process. Please note that this is an internal and external resource.

Contact: Christiane Hornikel

Quality of Implementation: Letter to CHs and CBs - State of Exception

Recognizing the measure taken by the Ecuadorian government, where through Executive Decrees 110 and 111 it has decreed a "State of Exception for Security issues" throughout the country for 60 days, Rainforest Alliance proceeds to authorize the force majeure exception to conduct hybrid audits or suspend scheduled audits during the 60 days scheduled audits during the 60 days decreed by the state.

Links to published material :   11012024 Carta a ECs y TCs Ecuador - Estado de Excepción.pdf

Person to contact: Catalina Bastidas

Start of online traceability for cashew and almonds

We launched online traceability for cashew and almonds in MultiTrace. We informed all CH with a license for cashew or almonds via email; CBs have received the information in the weekly CB communication of January 19th: 

• all FarmCH start reporting all their sales with shipment date on or after 1st of January 2024.  
• SCA confirm incoming transactions and report their onwards sales once they have received certified volumes into their account.  
• Sub-products and conversions are available on Confluence. 
• Farm Certificate Holders’ certified volumes are issued in ‘in-shell nuts’.   
• We also allow mass balance starting at FarmCH level. Thus, farms must maintain segregated nuts to the FarmCH, but the Farm CH may operate a mass balance system, like for hazelnuts or coconut oil.  
• As recently announced will charge a royalty of USD 46/MT to the first buyer after the primary processor (cracker) based on kernel equivalents.  We expect royalty to begin in Q4/2024. 

Contact: Christiane Hornikel 

Update of SD/SI for bananas to a ‘minimum SI’

We have updated the SD/SI guidance document and website for bananas and fresh fruits from a ‘fixed SI’ to a ‘minimum SI’ to comply with anti-trust and anti-competition laws. All other requirements and guidance remain the same.

Annex 3 (Income and Shared Responsibility) and the guidance documents in Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese will be updated in due course.

As a reminder: The minimum SI for bananas and fresh fruits is USD 5.50/MT; the SD is negotiable. The importer is the actor responsible for paying the SD/SI to the Farm CH (if required via the first buyer).

Please share this information internally and externally as needed.

Contact: Michelle Deugd

New version 1.1 of Annex Chapter 4: Farming is now online

An update of Annex Chapter 4: Farming is now available on our website. Version 1.1 will become binding from July 1st, 2024. Versions in other languages than EN will be published soon. 

We kept changes at minimum and only focused on areas we got feedback on:

• We added more information and clarifications regarding requirement 5.6.16 and cholinesterase test. For support, we also provided the full list of organophosphates and carbamate pesticides.
• The other important update regards the list of prohibited pesticides. We specified that all isomers of Glufosinate-ammonium are prohibited pesticides, and we added Paraquat to the list.

Contact: Juliana Jaramillo for your content questions, Felix Krussman, if your questions pertain process.