CFA - CENTROS DE FABRICO DOS AÇORES, a Bensaude Distribuição company in the food industry area, received today, 17th October 2022, the Welfair Animal Welfare certification in its Multi-site version.
Created in January 2021, CFA - CENTROS DE FABRICO DOS AÇORES is a company specialised in meat and fish from the Azores. Its mission is to add value to Azorean products, with high quality standards, establishing a lasting relationship of trust with customers and partners.
In the case of beef, CFA has partnerships with 35 individual producers on various islands in the Azores and 4 producers' cooperatives. Since 2021 it has started work towards Welfair Animal Welfare certification. In this first big step, the multi-site Welfair Animal Welfare certification had as protagonists 8 of CFA's producers and partners: Bovinaçor, Greenrural Azores, Rui Câmara, José Botelho, Emanuel Freitas, Miguel Parreira, Leonardo Evangelho and Francisco Diniz Vaz, from the islands of São Miguel and Terceira. The CFA is a pioneer in this type of multi-site certification, which guarantees the certification of various producers in the Autonomous Region of the Azores, in different parts of the archipelago.
The certification process is controlled and carried out by independent external entities, in this case by CERTIS, the first Portuguese certifying body recognised for conducting Welfair™ audits, going through several stages that include visits to producers, monitoring of farms, audits, always based on 4 principles: good feeding, good housing, good health and appropriate behaviour. There are more than 30 measures thoroughly considered, in order to comply with the European benchmarks Welfair Quality®️ and AWIN®️, the Welfair™ certification homologated by the Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology of Catalonia (IRTA) and Instituto Vasco de Investigación y Desarrollo Agrario (NEIKER), allowing you to select, evaluate and guarantee before the consumer the origin of your product.
The WELFAIR Animal Welfare Certification must also be present throughout the entire production chain, from primary production, to slaughterhouses, processing units and finally the points of sale. In this way, this Welfair Animal Welfare certification is today a guarantee of the defence, respect and dignity of the animals throughout the production chain, as well as practices that promote ethical, considered and sustainable production with the highest levels of food safety.
The event was attended by Pedro Hintze Ribeiro, Regional Director of Agriculture, representing the Regional Secretary for Agriculture and Rural Development, Carlos Filipe Medeiros, CEO of Bensaude Distribuição, Joaquim Marçal, representing CERTIS (certifying company), Ricardo Pinto, Director of the company Azores Manufacturing Centres (CFA) along with the 8 producers who also received certification.
This European recognition, referring to compliance with all practices related to animal welfare - from production to the point of sale - is not only a reflection of the daily commitment of local teams and producers, but also of the commitment that is common to Bensaude Distribution in investing in training and innovation to enhance the quality of local products and benefit companies, producers and customers.
Committed to continuing to fulfil its mission, the CFA's objective is to continue to work, over the next 3 years, to have the largest possible number of producers covered by the Welfair Animal Welfare certification.