We congratulate the companies of the Veggies From Mexico Community for renewing their certification in the Sedex Affiliates Ethical Trade Audit (SMETA) in terms of Social Responsibility: Agrícola De la Costa (5th year), Del Campo y Asociados (5^th year), Agrícola Campaña (4th year), Tricar (4^th year), El Nazario (3rd year), Agrícola Belher (2nd year), Vitanova (first time) and Promotora Agroindustrial y Comercial del Tamazula (first time); so based on the criteria by the Technical Operation Regulation of Eleven Rivers Agricultores Asociados, A.C., these companies managed to keep their current tier at the Veggies From Mexico community.

We extend our congratulations on behalf of the Board of Directors of Veggies from Mexico, to the management and all the technical staff of these companies, for their work and commitment.

SMETA is an audit format that brings together best practices in an ethical auditing technique. It is not a code of conduct, a new methodology or a certification process.

SMETA audits use the ETI Base Code, based on International Labor Organization standards, as well as relevant local laws. SMETA audits can be performed on two or four audit pillars. The two mandatory pillars for any SMETA audit are Labor Standards and Health and Safety. The two additional pillars of a 4-pillar audit are Business Ethics and Environment. These were introduced to further deepen the social responsibility aspect of SMETA audits.

The following are the four modules included:

– Health and Safety

– Labor standards

– Environment (optional)

– Business ethics (optional)

Since 2009, our VFM community applies and validates a strict compliance system through the verification of the main food safety and social responsibility standards for each participating company. Each company is assigned a level of compliance based on the commercial certifications it holds. The technical team of Eleven Rivers Growers performs weekly validation visits to all production areas of the grower companies, ensuring compliance with the criteria established in the certification schemes reviewed for our certification mark. Although the Eleven Rivers Growers technical team cannot revoke any certification, it has the authority to remove members of the community who have any non-conformity