More and more growers are substantially reducing the amount of crop protection agents they use. Those who are at the forefront of reducing their use of these products are keen to differentiate themselves. Now they can, with the new MPS add-on: MPS-GreenerGrown.

This add-on is a reboot of the MPS-Natural Protected certification standard which MPS introduced over eight years ago. MPS-Natural Protected was based on MPS-ABC record-keeping in combination with MPS-ProductProof, with the additional proviso that only biological crop protection agents could be used at the nursery. Since demand for that standard was minimal, MPS decided several years ago to cancel it.

However, demand for ornamentals grown using less chemical crop protection agents is now on the rise, with buyers increasingly demanding products produced in more sustainable ways. Transparency in operational management is already provided via the MPS-ABC certificate, but buyers now want to be able to identify growers who use minimal chemical crop protection agents or even exclusively use biological crop protection. MPS-GreenerGrown meets this demand from the market. 

Star system

MPS-GreenerGrown uses a star system that tells the grower how they can improve and move up to the next level by reducing the amount of chemical crop protection agents they use. MPS-GreenerGrown is an add-on to MPS-ABC (business reliability) and MPS-ProductProof (product reliability). It demonstrates at the company level that growers produce their plants using minimal amounts of chemical crop protection agents. It is a system in which the logging of crop protection agents (within 48 hours) and independent sampling can demonstrate that minimal quantities of active substances have been used in cultivation.

The star system indicates the extent to which active substances have been used:

- 3 stars ★★★ indicates that only biological crop protection agents have been used.

- 2 stars ★★ indicates that only biological crop protection agents and MPS-MIND white agents have been used.

- 1 star ★ indicates that only biological crop protection agents, MPS-MIND white agents and MPS-MIND green agents below the lower limit of the MPS-ABC standards have been used.

With this add-on, MPS is helping growers to become more sustainable in the area of crop protection by reducing the amount of chemicals they use and, in some cases, taking their first steps towards organic cultivation.

During the pilot fase  valuable input was given in the working group by OVATA, GreenBalanZ, Tesselaar Alstroemeria and Van der Starre, Natuur & Milieu, Tuinbranche Nederland, Intratuin and Royal Lemkes.