Our new Business Plan is now in effect, and I am excited to share our ambitions with you all.
Between now and the end of 2028, GMP+ International will be focusing on the future of our international feed industry. Building on our already strong reputation, and a solid organisational foundation, we are determined to enable more companies to contribute towards safe and sustainable feed, worldwide.
A scheme that adds value
The GMP+ Feed Certification (GMP+ FC) scheme has always evolved to meet the changing needs of the animal feed industry, thanks to our collaboration with feed companies themselves. We will make further improvements to our Feed Safety Assurance (GMP+ FSA) certification that will make it easier to use, more risk-based, and more transparent. We will also give the GMP+ Community more control by expanding knowledge-sharing, so auditors, Registered Consultants, and certified companies can make informed decisions that are right for their circumstances based on valuable and practical insights.
For Feed Responsibility Assurance (GMP+ FRA) we will scale up our sustainability offerings by accelerating product development and collaborating with industry leaders, including food producers and retailers. We are already developing a harmonised, future-proof standard for feed environmental footprint, and we are actively exploring a data protocol to enable sustainability data to be passed end-to-end across our complex international feed chain. Watch this space!
A stepwise approach for emerging markets
GMP+ International is already the world’s largest certification scheme in the animal feed industry, surpassing 20,000 certified companies last year.
Because of our Dutch roots, it’s unsurprising that many of our certificate holders are in Europe. But across South America, Asia, and elsewhere, we’ve been working with feed companies and governments who want to access global markets, but struggle because they do not yet have the equivalent safety or sustainability infrastructure; things like regulations, Certification Bodies, and widely adopted practices.
In these contexts, it’s unfair to expect small companies to make the leap on their own. So we plan to help through building on our existing presence in emerging markets to support companies to adopt practices that will, over time, meet the full requirements of GMP+ certification; enabling safe feed, and fair competition on a level playing field around the globe.
Tech-enabled, user-friendly
An entire workstream of our Business Plan is dedicated to operational excellence and driving positive impact by improving data management and fit for purpose tooling. We’ve already invested significantly in making a smoother customer and user journey, which we will continue in the coming years.
But we also want to connect tooling, such as data analytics and AI, to improve the GMP+ experience. We will work to implement an easy-to-use CB audit application to support audit execution and complete and correct audit data, explore predictive data models, and even a chat bot to support common queries to the GMP+ Helpdesk.
Thumbs up from GMP+ companies
As part of our plan, we have set ourselves the goal of continuously increasing the added value of the GMP+ FC scheme and our services for the GMP+ Community. Each year we work with Ipsos I&O to survey GMP+ certified companies and partners on our products and services, and last year both reported increased satisfaction from an already highly satisfied baseline.
Respondents particularly valued the scope and added value of GMP+ certification to their business, the international recognition, and the strong collaboration with GMP+ International. What's more is that, once again, the feedback from the community on where they can see opportunities for improvement are already align with what we are planning to do in the upcoming years – a smoother customer journey, data analytics, and improved tooling.
Change inside and out
Within GMP+ International itself we have already made some big changes to prepare to implement this Business Plan, including optimisation of the organisation and empowering our team with the skills, knowledge, and processes needed to deliver consistent, high-quality value to our customers.
The start to 2026 has shown that the world is still unpredictable, and even the best of plans can, and should, change when circumstances do. Feed companies are operating in a volatile and uncertain international context, which only makes our work even more relevant. GMP+ certification is a mark of reassurance in our industry, and while our plans may adapt to meet the needs of the moment, our mission to enable a safe and sustainable feed industry will stay front and centre no matter what.
My ultimate goal is to be a widely and deeply valued partner for safe & sustainable feed worldwide. By driving customer focused innovation, with a professional organisation, we can do more than just supplying certificates – we can play our part in securing the future of our industry.
And as our partners, we want to hear from you. Your continuous feedback, your insights, on market trends, and your experiences with our scheme and services is all highly valuable to us to develop our work further. You are our partners, and I look forward to deepening our partnership further.