The International General Produce Association (IGPA) was an international association and contract issuing body in general produce, including herbs and spices, essential oils and aromatic chemicals.
Origins
The Pepperers' Guild, later to become the Grocers' Company, one of the Great Guilds of London, was founded in 1180. The formation and expansion of the British, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish and French Empires were in part an attempt to obtain direct sources of supply of exotic spices, drugs, fibres and dyes, to name a few, which are now known collectively as "General Produce.”
Development
In September 1599, “The Company of Merchant Adventurers” Trading in the East Indies was incorporated. In 1876, “The General Produce Brokers' Association of London” was founded by a group of Brokers who met in the Subscription Rooms of the London Commercial Sales Rooms in Mincing Lane in order to regularise the trade.
In the 1970s, decisions were made to remove the difference between Brokers and Associates, the title of the Association therefore becoming the "General Produce Association of London". In 1985, the geographic designation was removed from the name of the association, which became the "International General Produce Association". In 1990, the association was incorporated as a limited company. In 2008 the International General Produce Association joined the Grain and Feed Trade Association.