With international trade in food booming, consumers are increasingly concerned about food safety, how food is produced, and how it is handled within the supply chain. Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) could be the panacea for producers seeking to address consumer concerns in domestic and foreign markets. GAP establishes a framework for safe, high-quality food produced in environmentally responsible and socially acceptable ways. However, GAP as implemented in many developing countries suffers from regulations, guidelines, and definitions that vary from country to country. The GLOBALGAP standard is an international benchmark that harmonizes concepts, definitions, and guidelines. It integrates rules on agricultural production into a single farm audit. It also serves as a global reference system for other existing standards and can also be easily and directly applied by all parties in the primary food sector. GLOBALGAP is a single integrated standard with modular applications for different product groups, ranging from plant and livestock production to plant propagation materials and compound feed manufacturing.

The GLOBALGAP standard was developed by GLOBALGAP, a private-sector body that sets voluntary standards for the certification of agricultural products around the globe. The GLOBALGAP head office is located in Cologne, Germany.