AiR-Agri
Key takeaways
- GFSI recognises twelve certification programme owners, and they cover different parts of the chain. Farming, processing and distribution are not interchangeable.
- GLOBALG.A.P. covers plant farming, pre-process handling and aquaculture. BRCGS, FSSC 22000, IFS and SQF cover processing and downstream scopes.
- HACCP is not a certification scheme. It is the hazard analysis method that sits inside all of them, which is why hiring on HACCP alone produces a mismatched shortlist.
- Hire for scheme experience plus audit experience. Somebody who has been through the audit and closed the non-conformances is worth more than somebody who has read the standard.
A pattern we see most months. An export buyer tells a producer they need certification. The producer posts a job for a food safety manager. Sixty applications arrive, ten look plausible, and none of them have worked to the scheme the buyer named.
The gap is almost always the same. The brief asked for food safety. The buyer asked for a specific scheme, on a specific scope, at a specific version.
The schemes, and what they cover
The Global Food Safety Initiative recognises twelve certification programme owners. They are not variations on one standard. They cover different parts of the chain.
| Scheme | Where it applies |
|---|---|
| GLOBALG.A.P. | Plant farming, pre-process handling, aquaculture and finfish |
| BRCGS | Processing, feed, packaging, storage and distribution, broker services |
| FSSC 22000 | Pre-process handling, animal conversion, processing, feed, packaging, distribution |
| IFS | Pre-process handling, animal conversion, processing, packaging, broker and logistics |
| SQF | Farming, processing, feed, packaging, chemicals |
| PrimusGFS | Plant farming, grains and pulses, pre-process handling, processing, distribution |
| Global Red Meat Standard | Animal primary conversion, perishable animal product processing |
| Global Seafood Alliance | Seafood processing |
CanadaGAP, Freshcare, GRMA and the Japan Food Safety Management Association complete the list, with narrower geographic or category scopes.
If you grow and pack citrus, your world is GLOBALG.A.P. If you run a juice plant, it is FSSC 22000 or BRCGS. Somebody excellent at one has usually never seen the other.
Where HACCP fits
HACCP is not a scheme. It is the hazard analysis method from the Codex Alimentarius, and it sits inside all of the schemes above.
This matters for hiring because "HACCP certified" is the phrase most candidates put on a CV. It tells you they have done a two day or five day course. It does not tell you they have run a site through a BRCGS audit, held the technical file, or argued a non-conformance with an auditor at seven in the morning.
Ask for the scheme. Ask for the version. Ask what grade the site achieved and what the non-conformances were.
What to put in the brief
Name the scheme and the version. Standards get revised, and a manager who ran a site under an older issue has real work to do to catch up.
Name the product category. Perishable plant, perishable animal, ambient stable, feed. Auditors treat these differently and so do experienced candidates.
Say whether the person is the named technical contact for the buyer. That changes the seniority, the salary and the type of person who will take the job.
Say what you are inheriting. A site with a clean audit history is a different job to a site that has just lost certification. Be honest about it in the brief, because the second one attracts a specific kind of candidate who enjoys the rescue, and hiding it wastes everybody's time.
The seniority ladder, and what each level is for
Employers often advertise one level and need another.
Food safety officer or QA officer. Runs the records. Verification checks, calibration logs, internal audits against a checklist, corrective action follow up. This is the level most sites over hire for and under use.
Food safety or quality manager. Owns the system. Writes and revises the HACCP plan, holds the technical file, faces the auditor, manages the QA team, signs off product release. This is the named contact your buyer wants.
Group technical manager. Owns the standard across several sites, handles the customer technical relationship, drives capital requests for compliance, and manages the risk sitting behind the certificate at company level.
If the certificate is the thing keeping the contract, you are hiring at the second or third level. Advertising at the first and hoping to grow someone into it is how sites end up unprepared at audit.
Ten questions that sort the shortlist
- Which scheme, which issue or version, and which scope did you hold?
- What grade did the site achieve at the last audit under you?
- Name three non-conformances you closed and how.
- Have you ever had a certificate suspended, and what happened next?
- Walk me through your HACCP plan's critical control points on a product like ours.
- How do you validate a CCP as opposed to verifying it?
- What is your approach to allergen management on a shared line?
- How do you handle a positive environmental swab on a Friday afternoon?
- Which customer audits have you faced beyond the scheme audit?
- What did you change in the last twelve months that reduced risk rather than paperwork?
Candidates who have carried the system answer these in specifics. Candidates who have supported it answer in generalities.
Why these searches stall
The pool is small in any one country. Certification is concentrated in export oriented businesses, and the number of people who have carried a named scheme at manager level in, say, Zambia, is countable.
The pool across the continent is much larger. A quality manager running BRCGS at a Moroccan packhouse can run BRCGS at a Ghanaian one. The standard is the same document. We move people for exactly this reason and handle the permit side so the move is real rather than theoretical. The mechanics are in our guide to cross border hiring in African agriculture.
The second stall is money. These roles protect the contract that carries the business. Benchmarking them against a general production supervisor produces a shortlist of people who cannot do the job, and a nine month vacancy. It is the same pattern behind the four agri roles employers struggle most to fill.
The third is timing. Audit season is the worst possible moment to start a search, and it is when most sites start one. If you know your audit date, work backwards, the way you would for any other seasonal agricultural hire.
If you are losing the certificate next month
Sometimes the search starts too late and the audit is close. Three things help.
Bring in an interim. Experienced consultants will hold a system together through an audit cycle, and a competent interim buys you the months you need to hire properly rather than desperately.
Split the role. If your gap is documentation, hire a strong officer now and the manager on a normal timeline. If your gap is judgement in front of the auditor, do the reverse and buy the senior time first.
Tell candidates the truth. A site that has just lost certification is a genuinely attractive job to a specific kind of technical manager who likes rebuilding. Hiding the situation loses those people at reference stage, when they find out anyway.
Working with us
AiR-Agri recruits food safety, quality and technical leadership across 19 African markets, for farms, packhouses, processors and exporters. Send us the buyer's requirement and we will tell you what the market for that scheme looks like before you post anything.
Frequently asked
What is the difference between HACCP and GFSI certification?
HACCP is a hazard analysis method defined in the Codex Alimentarius. It is a component of every GFSI recognised scheme, not an alternative to one. A buyer asking for GFSI certification wants a benchmarked scheme such as BRCGS, FSSC 22000, IFS or SQF, with HACCP inside it.
Which certification does a farm need versus a processing plant?
Farms and pre-process handling usually sit under GLOBALG.A.P., CanadaGAP, PrimusGFS or SQF farming scopes. Processing sites usually sit under BRCGS, FSSC 22000, IFS or SQF. Which one applies is set by your buyer, not by you.
What should a food safety manager job spec ask for?
Name the scheme and version, the product category, the audit history you need them to inherit, and whether they will be the named technical contact. Ask for evidence of closing non-conformances, not just of holding a certificate.
How long does it take to hire a certified food safety manager in Africa?
In a single country, three to six months is common because the pool is small. Searching across several African markets usually produces a qualified shortlist in three to four weeks.