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Rainforest Alliance

The Rainforest Alliance (RA) Standard enables farmers to protect their forest, improve their livelihoods and those of the community, promote their human rights and help them to mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis.

Forest 5
    Rainforest Alliance

    About the standard

    Rainforest Alliance is an international organization that promotes sustainable farming, forest protection, and better livelihoods for workers.

    Certification means:

    • 🌍 Protecting the environment
    • 👩‍🌾 Ensuring social responsibility
    • 📈 Accessing markets that value sustainability

    The green frog seal is recognized worldwide as a guarantee of commitment to a more sustainable future.

    Certification Process

    Rainforest Alliance

    Companies that are preparing for the audit and do not have a UTZ certificate or are new to RA

    All certificate holders who wish to join the Rainforest Alliance certification program must create an account on RACP, RACP. You will need to define your certification scope according to your certification option (farm/supply chain); include the relevant entities and activities, and in this way, you will obtain the applicable requirements and self-assessment format from the platform itself. This information shall be reviewed and updated as necessary; at a minimum once a year as preparation for each regular audit (Certification and Recertification for Supply Chain; and Certification/Recertification, Surveillance 1 and Surveillance 2 for Farm). The entire certification scope must be covered by the certification account, which will have a unique ID assigned by RA. Please note that you can choose to create separate certification accounts for different scopes/options of certification. Relevant documents and audit preparation materials will be available in your RACP platform account. Remember that if you are an applicant for the supply chain, you must complete your risk assessment in the RACP. Once this part is managed, please contact CUServices.

    More information

    Please complete the CAF in its current version, according to your certification option and scope established in RACP. CUServices will review your application request and assess whether we can provide the service. In this evaluation, we will also verify if the requested scope is correct or if it needs to be adjusted. You will be asked for the required documents prior to the audit (audit preparation documents).

    our commercial executives will send you an economic proposal, describing the costs. Along with the offer letter you will find the Terms of Contract. If you agree to the offer, return a copy signed by the legal representative. Once the contract is signed, you enter into an agreement with CUServices to join our certification program.

    After receiving payment of the agreed fee for the service, we will start planning the date of your visit. At this stage, you will have the opportunity to complete the audit preparation documents according to your certification option and send them to us no later than between the 3rd and 2nd week before the audit.

    This is the first audit of a CUServices client for the RA Program, as part of a 3-year certification cycle (Certification Audit, Surveillance Audit 1, and Surveillance Audit 2). The lead auditor and/or qualified audit team will evaluate the compliance of your operation with the program requirements. As a result of the audit, non-compliances (Non-Conformities) may be detected against the program requirements. The lead auditor will inform you of these during the closing meeting and will indicate the deadlines for resolving the non-compliances. You will need to submit your corrections, root cause analysis, and corrective actions to address the NCs. This information will be evaluated by the auditor, who will determine whether the evidence is sufficient for the effective closure of the non-conformity. Additionally, possible cases that could lead to a denial of certification will be communicated.

    Based on the results of the audit and the effective closure of findings, the certifier will make a certification decision on whether or not to grant certification according to the certification rules.

    If you were granted a certificate for the program, this indicates that you have an active license on the RACP/Multitrace platform. You must register each transaction of certified products on the Rainforest Alliance platform to allow for the issuance of a transaction certificate. Please keep in mind the reporting timelines specified in the standard.

    The client must demonstrate that they continue to comply with the program requirements, for which follow-up audits will be scheduled according to the certification cycle. To do this, the client must confirm their scope in RACP each year and prepare and share the audit preparation documents with CUServices. On the other hand, CUServices may conduct other types of audits, such as scope extension audits, surprise audits, investigative audits, and follow-up audits, as established in the Rules, to maintain certification. As a result of this process, it will be determined whether to maintain, expand, reduce, suspend, or revoke the granted certification.

    The program documents can be found at the following link

    Benefits

    The Sustainable Agriculture standard, assurance system, data systems and technology are designed to bring more value to farmers and companies around the world that use Rainforest Alliance certification as an essential tool to drive sustainable agricultural production and to responsible supply chains.

    Farms, groups of farms and supply chain organizations that comply with all the requirements applicable to the Sustainable Agriculture Standard, and with the processes of the Rainforest Alliance Assurance Rules may sell, ship and/or buy their products with the Rainforest Alliance Certified certification.

    For more information about the Rainforest Alliance, you can visit http://www.rainforest-alliance.org

     

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