Florimark

1. Review the Florimark standard: Download and study the Florimark criteria document from the MPS website (my-mps.com), covering product quality, traceability, environmental management, and social compliance requirements.\n2. Conduct a self-assessment (gap analysis): Compare your current operations, documentation, and practices against the Florimark standard to identify areas needing improvement before the audit.\n3. Implement required practices: Address any gaps identified — this may include setting up traceability systems, updating worker welfare policies, improving environmental record-keeping, and ensuring product quality controls are documented.\n4. Prepare documentation: Compile all required records including production logs, pesticide use records, worker contracts, environmental data, and quality control procedures.\n5. Apply to MPS: Submit your application through the MPS portal at my-mps.com. MPS will assign an accredited third-party inspection body to conduct your audit.\n6. Undergo the third-party audit: An accredited inspector will conduct an on-site visit to review your documentation and inspect facilities, processes, and records against Florimark criteria.\n7. Receive certification decision: If conformity is confirmed, you will receive the Florimark quality seal and be listed in the MPS online registry. Non-conformities must be corrected before certification is granted.\n8. Maintain certification: Prepare for annual re-audits to maintain your Florimark status and keep all records up to date throughout the year.

Florimark evaluates suppliers across four core pillars:\n\nProduct Quality: Inspectors assess whether flowers and plants meet defined quality standards, including grading, presentation, packaging, and shelf-life requirements. This ensures that certified products meet the expectations of professional buyers and auction platforms.\n\nTraceability: Suppliers must demonstrate robust traceability systems that allow products to be tracked from origin through the supply chain. This includes batch records, labelling, and documentation that enable rapid identification of product origin in the event of a quality or safety issue.\n\nEnvironmental Practices: This pillar evaluates the supplier's environmental management, including responsible use of crop protection products (pesticides and fungicides), water management, energy use, and waste handling. Suppliers are expected to demonstrate continuous improvement in their environmental footprint, consistent with MPS's broader sustainability framework.\n\nSocial Compliance: Auditors review labour practices and working conditions against social responsibility criteria, including fair wages, working hours, health and safety, freedom of association, and prohibition of child and forced labour. This aligns with internationally recognized labour standards relevant to the floriculture sector.

Florimark occupies a well-established niche within the Dutch and broader European floriculture supply chain. Issued by MPS (Milieu Programma Sierteelt), one of the most recognized certification bodies in the global flower industry, Florimark serves as a combined quality-and-sustainability seal specifically designed for flower and plant traders and suppliers. It is particularly relevant for businesses selling through Royal FloraHolland, the world's largest flower auction, where certified status can be a de facto market access requirement for many buyer segments.\n\nThe program competes with more specialized schemes such as GlobalG.A.P. Flowers and Ornamentals (focused on agricultural good practices), Rainforest Alliance (environmental and social, broader scope), and Fairtrade Certified Flowers (social justice focus). Florimark's differentiation lies in its integrated approach — combining quality, traceability, environment, and social criteria in a single audit — which reduces the certification burden for suppliers who would otherwise need multiple schemes. MPS also offers complementary certifications (MPS-GAP, MPS-SQ, MPS-ABC) that can be bundled or stacked.\n\nDemand for floriculture sustainability certification has grown steadily, driven by European retailer and consumer expectations around responsible sourcing, as well as EU regulatory trends toward supply chain due diligence. However, Florimark's geographic footprint remains concentrated in the Netherlands and Western Europe, with limited penetration in major producing countries such as Kenya, Ethiopia, and Colombia, where Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade tend to dominate. Suppliers targeting the Dutch auction market specifically will find Florimark highly relevant; those targeting UK or North American retail may need to complement it with other schemes.

Florimark was established in 2005 by MPS (Milieu Programma Sierteelt), a Dutch organization founded in the 1990s to address growing environmental concerns in the floriculture sector. MPS originally developed its certification programs in response to pressure from Dutch retailers, auction houses, and environmental groups who sought measurable improvements in pesticide use and environmental management among flower growers. Florimark was created as a trade-facing quality seal that extended MPS's environmental focus to also encompass product quality, traceability, and social compliance — reflecting the floriculture industry's evolving expectations around responsible sourcing.\n\nOver time, MPS consolidated several of its certification offerings under the broader MPS umbrella, with Florimark positioned specifically for the trader and supplier segment of the supply chain (as distinct from grower-level certifications like MPS-GAP and MPS-ABC). The program has been recognized by Royal FloraHolland and other major European auction and trading platforms as a credible quality and sustainability signal, helping to embed it as a standard expectation in the Dutch flower trade. MPS continues to operate as the primary certification and registry body, working with accredited third-party inspection organizations to conduct audits.