Interested in purchasing products from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms? The first step is to get certified to our 2020 certification program.
What is chain of custody certification?
Supply chain certification tracks a product from a Rainforest Alliance certified farm through every step of the production process. It provides assurance that your products’ claims are accurate, and you can have full confidence in the integrity of your supply chain.
Supply chain certification will allow your company to easily source and sell products with the Rainforest Alliance Certified seal. It will help you meet the rising demand for more sustainable products. You’ll be able to access new markets, reduce your risks, and get support at the same time.
A company can seek Rainforest Alliance certification only if they are sourcing ingredients or plan to source ingredients that originate from a Rainforest Alliance Certified farm.
How do I get supply chain certification?
- Register in our new platform, MultiTrace, by invitation.
- Once your account registration has been confirmed, you will be able to build your company profile.
- The profile completion process includes a series of questions about your operations which is known as the Supply Chain Risk Assessment (SCRA). The SCRA evaluates the potential risks of an organization’s operations on individual site level in order to determine the type and frequency of verification required. A company’s profile is based on the activities, location and crop information captured through this process in combination with other internal and third-party data (volumes, compliance, social risks, and others) specific for each individual operation. These factors then feed into a risk calculation which lands an organization in one of the five verification levels.
- Once you have completed building your profile in MultiTrace, you will be able to view your contextualized set of requirements and our Supply Chain team will review your SCRA to provide your accurate verification level and next steps. Please note: We expect an influx of profiles to review at the beginning of this process which may lead to longer review times however, the process will become more automated as we move forward.
- You will be able to see your results and next steps in your MultiTrace profile.
- The certification body you choose will provide a schedule and budget for your audit. Based on your risk assessment, review the corresponding audit schedule below.
- After your audit, the certification body shares your results. If the results are positive, your company is approved for a Supply Chain Certificate and issued a license to access our traceability platform.
- Supply Chain certified companies are required to maintain compliance with our 2020 Sustainable Agriculture Standard throughout the duration of their certification.
Supply chain certification audit schedule
This schedule covers the three-year supply chain certification cycle as well as the transition year.
| Verification Level | Transition Year | Verification Method Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 |
| A – Lowest Risk | RA review | RA review | RA automated check | RA automated check |
| B | CB desk audit | CB desk audit | RA review | RA automated check |
| C | CB desk audit | CB onsite | CB desk audit | RA review |
| D | CB desk audit | CB onsite | CB onsite | CB desk audit |
| E Highest Risk | CB desk audit | CB onsite | CB onsite | CB onsite |
Rainforest Alliance and UTZ mutual recognition
We have mutual recognition for the Rainforest Alliance and UTZ Chain of Custody certifications. This means that you can source both Rainforest Alliance and UTZ certified products with only one annual audit. Companies can request Mutual Recognition through December 31st, 2022 to the pre-merger RA/UTZ programs. To learn more, visit our mutual recognition guidelines.
Rainforest Alliance 2015 program and UTZ Choc program
The CRA/audit application process is now closed in order to allow time to transition to our new program. However, in urgent cases where companies need to get certified to the current programs and plan to receive an audit to the pre-merger RA/UTZ Certification program, we will take these under consideration.
Note for the 2015 Rainforest Alliance program: You can proceed with other activities in Marketplace, such as requesting a License Agreement and submitting a trademark request as soon as you have registered in Marketplace. To register, please contact customersuccess@ra.org.
RA 2015 program documents: Rainforest Alliance Chain of Custody Standard and Policy
UTZ program documents: Certification for Companies.
