The Japan Good Agricultural Initiative (JGAI) was formed by a group of Japanese producers in April 2005, to establish a system that ensures the safety of agricultural produce by establishing one common standard of good agricultural practices in Japan - JGAP. The Japanese Ministry of Agriculture announced in June 2006 that JGAP would become the national standard, meaning that several private retailers and the current ministry GAP scheme will come under the same umbrella. It was decided to benchmark JGAP against GLOBALGAP in order to strengthen the recognition of the scheme by retailers within the country and internationally. GLOBALGAP benchmarking was completed in August 2007.