Chapter 2: Traceability
A successful and credible sustainable agriculture certification program must give its users confidence that certified products are produced according to the Standard. This requires a robust, transparent system to track products from the farmer along the supply chain up to the level of the retailer.
A few minor changes have been made to this chapter to clarify the requirements, such as rewording.
You can review all changes to the traceability requirements in the documentation found in the Resources section.
We would like to highlight the new requirement about royalty payment.
Royalty payment:
In our new Standard, a requirement has been added to support the verification of royalty payments according to the payment terms. This change improves accountability, ensuring that royalty payments are made accurately and transparently.
Royalties are paid to the Rainforest Alliance by companies that buy and sell goods produced on Rainforest Alliance Certified farms. The Rainforest Alliance uses the royalties to support and sustain our certification programs. We invest these royalties in developing standards and policies, training farmers and auditors, managing a quality control system for auditors, tracing certified products throughout the supply chain, measuring impact, and more.