Support of compliance is essential for the competitiveness of food SMEs
HACCP, TFMS, IFS, FSA, COFRAC, BRC, BSCI, ETI, Fairtrade, UTZ, RSPO,
Rainforest Alliance… These are just a few abbreviations that cover complex
compliance systems that guarantee the quality assurance of food production and the
sustainability of the materials used and furthermore extends to the ethical sourcing of
raw materials.
Retailers and consumers alike are increasingly demanding manufacturers to comply
with a wide variety of requirements in addition to laws and regulations. For example,
it is often not enough to use the widespread food quality assurance system, HACCP,
because individual retail chains or importers may even have their own unique set of
requirements for producers. Thus, a supplier often has to meet a dozen criteria to
distribute their products as widely as possible.
Enhanced compliance requires significant human and technological resources,
involves regular audits, both the implementation and maintenance costs are
significant, and the administrative burden associated with stringent documentation
requirements is very high.
Larger multinational companies manage compliance regionally or centrally across
multiple countries and customers. However meeting the compliance demands of
different quality, sustainability systems and other requirements is a much greater
challenge for local small and medium-sized businesses.
For this reason, the Association of Hungarian Confectionery Manufacturers is
initiating targeted support for domestic small and medium-sized enterprises in the
development of various compliance systems and in carrying out the necessary audits
in the food industry in order to maintain and enhance the competitiveness and export
ability of Hungarian confectionery production.