On May 1, 2026, GLOBALG.A.P. IFA v6 Smart becomes mandatory for combinable crops and plant propagation material. After that date, no more audits can be conducted against IFA v5.2 for those categories. Existing certificates remain valid through their cycle, but none can continue beyond April 30, 2027.
This completes the wider IFA v6 rollout that began with other scopes earlier in the transition. Combinable crops and plant propagation material may be the last categories to move, but the structural changes are substantial enough that comfortable v5.2 operators still need to do real preparation.
If your next audit lands after May 1, it is a v6 audit. There is no soft landing in the schedule once the cutoff hits.
The Timeline You Need to Know
The timing matters because the transition logic is clean and strict. If your audit happens after the cutoff, the old version is no longer an option, regardless of how settled your v5.2 system may feel.
What IFA v6 Actually Changes
IFA v6 is not a tracked-changes refresh of v5.2. It is a structural rewrite built around principles and criteria rather than the older control point and compliance criteria model. That affects how standards are read, how self-assessments are performed, and how evidence is framed during the audit.
From control points to principles and criteria
IFA v6 shifts from a rigid control-point structure to outcome-based principles and criteria, changing how producers demonstrate compliance even when the underlying practice stays familiar.
Combinable crops align with the wider v6 framework
Environmental responsibility, worker welfare, traceability, and postharvest handling are all brought into the same structural logic already used in other v6 plant scopes.
Plant propagation material loses the food safety claim
The PPM scope is delinked from food safety in v6, sharpening the standard around traceability, plant health, and responsible production instead of final-product safety assurance.
Combinable Crops: Postharvest and Environmental Controls Stay Central
For combinable crops, the practical core of the audit remains grounded in field production, harvest, storage, and postharvest handling. Mycotoxin risk, moisture control, storage hygiene, pest management, and lot segregation still matter, but they now sit inside the broader v6 logic of outcome-based assurance.
Version 6 also gives more weight to environmental responsibility, including biodiversity, soil health, integrated pest management, water stewardship, and metrics that ask producers to show more than policy intent.
Plant Propagation Material: A Different Certification Logic
The most consequential shift for nurseries and propagation operations is that plant propagation material is no longer tied to food safety claims under v6. That is not a minor wording tweak. It changes the commercial logic of the certificate.
Instead, the scope sharpens around what matters most for propagation material: traceability, plant health, phytosanitary integrity, source control, and responsible production. For many nursery-to-farm supply chains, that is a cleaner fit. But if customers previously interpreted the certificate as a food safety assurance tool, expectations may need to be reset.
For PPM operators, the transition is not just about updating a checklist. It is also about updating how the certification is explained to buyers and internal teams.
Add-Ons and Audit Planning Still Matter
Producers using add-ons need to confirm they are working with versions compatible with IFA v6. This is a common transition trap: the core standard gets updated, but supporting add-ons or self-assessment packs remain tied to the old cycle.
Certification body planning matters too, particularly for combinable crops where audit timing may need to sit during harvest or near enough to it that evidence can still be verified on farm.
What to Do Now
The useful transition work is not abstract. It is document review, self-assessment, evidence reframing, add-on verification, and audit scheduling. The later that work starts, the more likely the audit will become the discovery mechanism.
Transition checklist
How Crosscheck Helps
Crosscheck supports GLOBALG.A.P. alongside sustainability, feed, and food safety certification work. For the v6 transition, the practical gain is seeing where your current v5.2 evidence already supports the new principles and where the structure, framing, or content no longer fits.
For mixed operations or farms holding multiple certifications, the platform also helps identify where a single record supports more than one standard and where additional category-specific evidence is still needed.
The May 1 cutoff is close enough that self-assessment should already be underway. If it is not, that is the first gap to fix.
Next step
IFA v6 for combinable crops and plant propagation material goes mandatory on May 1, 2026.
Crosscheck maps IFA v6 principles and criteria to your current farm documentation, flags where your v5.2 evidence no longer fits cleanly, and helps your team prepare before the first v6 audit window closes around you.