Webinar: Social certification trends and tips

In the last few decades, the number of mandatory and voluntary certification standards for food and other consumer goods has increased. Certification schemes are often used to upgrade the social and environmental conditions within global value chains and ensure sustainability.

During this webinar, we will look at market developments and trends in social certification standards. We will also help you navigate the vast offer of available standards. A guest speaker will provide tips based on their experience of getting and maintaining certification standards.

We will discuss the following questions:

• What are current trends in social certification standards?
• How do you choose between all the standards on offer?
• How can you overcome certification barriers?
   

For whom?

The webinar is for entrepreneurs and business support organisations exporting agri-food products or textile products to the European market.

Agenda

11:00 – 11:05 CET: Welcome and introduction
11:05 – 11:20 CET: Trends in social certifications
11:20 – 11:35 CET: Navigating the offer
11:35 – 11:50 CET: Guest speaker
11:50 – 12:15 CET: Questions and answers session

Presenters

Ron van Meer, Senior Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) advisor at CBI, will host this webinar.

Lisanne Groothuis and Jolanda van Hal will give the main presentation.
 

Lisanne Groothuis

Lisanne is a consultant at ProFound – Advisers In Development. In her work at ProFound, Lisanne focuses on facilitating trade promotion and linking producers to the market. This involves compliance with standards as buyers expect safe, traceable, sustainable, and well-documented products from their suppliers. Lisanne is an experienced market researcher and writes the CBI Coffee and Cocoa Market Information studies.

Jolanda van Hal

Jolanda is a consultant at ProFound – Advisers In Development. She is a trade promotion and market research expert. She is specialised in the promotion of sustainable trade in biodiversity-related products. Jolanda has a lot of experience with international market research, developing strategic marketing guides for SMEs and linking them to international markets. Her product expertise includes natural ingredients for cosmetics, food and health products.

Guest speaker: Sonali Pandithasekera

Sonali is the Founding Partner and CFO of Serendipol Private Limited (Sri Lanka), the only regenerative organic certified coconut brand in the world. She has over 25 years of experience in finance and 15 years of experience in organic and social certification compliance.

More information

For more information, please contact Programme Manager Thomas Vonk via the contact form.