HVE Certification: How to Obtain It, Step by Step

High Environmental Value is the third level of the environmental certification of farms, provided for in article L. 611-6 of the French Rural and Maritime Fishing Code. It is the only level that grants the right to the mention and the logo. Here is the real path to obtaining it, in the order the decisions arise.

Step 1 — Position yourself before committing

Certification covers the whole farm, assessed across four themes: biodiversity, crop protection strategy, fertilisation management, water resource management. The route to level 3 — the only one since 1 January 2023 — requires obtaining at least ten points on each of the four grids of indicators, with no compensation possible between them.

The first task is therefore to know where you stand. A self-assessment from the last season’s data — cropping plan, agro-ecological infrastructure, crop protection records, nitrogen balance, irrigation data — is enough to answer the only question that matters at this stage: am I close to ten points everywhere, or does one theme clearly fall short? Chambers of agriculture and many cooperatives offer this exercise, often in groups.

Do not skip this step hoping the auditor will do the diagnosis for you. The audit records; it does not coach.

Step 2 — Choose the target: level 2 or level 3

Since level 1 was removed by a decree published in late October 2023, the environmental certification has only two levels left.

Level 2 rests on a set of means-based requirements — sixteen requirements spread across the same four themes. It is issued by an approved certification body and is a certification in its own right, but it does not grant the HVE mention.

Level 3 is High Environmental Value, built on outcome indicators.

One calendar element must weigh in the decision if you supply public catering: products from farms certified at level 2 count towards the 50 % of sustainable, quality products under the EGalim law only until 31 December 2026. We cover this deadline and its consequences in our article on HVE, EGalim and the 2027 deadline.

Step 3 — Individual or collective

Under an individual route, you contract directly with the certification body, prepare your file and receive the auditor. You control your timetable; you bear the preparation burden and the audit cost alone.

Under a collective route, a lead structure links a group of farms to the certification body. It runs the annual internal audits of its members, and the certification body assesses the quality of its control system every year while also auditing a sample of farms. The unit cost falls and technical support is pooled, in exchange for dependence on the group’s timetable.

For an isolated farm with no dedicated technical adviser, the collective route is often the shortest path to the certificate.

Step 4 — Select an approved certification body

Certification is issued by a certification body approved by the ministry of agriculture. Several bodies offer this service, among them AFNOR Certification, Ecocert France, Bureau Veritas, Certis and Control Union.

Ask for two or three quotes and compare the cost of the full three-year cycle, surveillance audit included, not just the price of the initial audit. Also check the practical terms: booking lead times, scope covered if you have several legal entities, handling of recorded discrepancies.

Step 5 — Consolidate whole-farm data

This is the real work, and the one most often underestimated.

Since certification covers the entire farm, no production line can be left out: a wine farm that owns a few hectares of cereals must include them in the scope. In practice, you need to gather and make reliable the full cropping plan, the census and measurement of agro-ecological infrastructure (hedges, grass strips, copses, ponds, isolated trees), the crop protection records allowing the treatment indicators to be computed, the nitrogen fertilisation plan and balance, and the irrigation data.

One organisational point changes everything: log as you go, in a single tool, with up-to-date areas. Farms that struggle with their audits are almost always those that reconstruct an entire season a fortnight before the visit.

This measurement discipline has a documented side effect. A study by Payen, Moran, Cahurel and Aitkenhead published in 2021 in Environmental Science & Policy, based on 400 French winegrowers, identifies among the factors that significantly influence the adoption of soil-carbon-storage practices the fact of being HVE-certified or organic-certified, alongside age, farm size and perceived resources (see the study). In other words: the certification process statistically comes with other changes in practice.

Step 6 — Close the gaps, starting with the blocking criteria

The revised standard applicable since 1 January 2023 raised several performance thresholds, created new point-earning items, and introduced blocking criteria on the biodiversity and crop protection strategy themes. A blocking criterion is a requirement whose breach prevents certification, whatever your point total.

The order of work is therefore simple: first check the blocking criteria, then only optimise the point total on the grids below threshold. The detail of the items and the scoring belong to the standard in force, to be consulted in its applicable version — our article on the HVE standard and its four grids explains its mechanics.

Step 7 — The initial audit, then the life of the certificate

The initial audit takes place on site, by appointment. The auditor checks the consistency between the declared data and the reality on the ground, verifies the supporting documents and computes the points obtained on each of the four grids.

The certificate is issued for three years. It is not a permanent given: a surveillance audit takes place during the cycle and a renewal audit is required before expiry. Note both deadlines as soon as you receive the certificate.

There remains the matter of valorising the certification without exposing yourself: the logo follows precise usage rules, notably a 95 % threshold of certified agricultural raw materials for processed products. See our article on the HVE logo usage rules.

What makes an HVE process fail

Three causes recur:

• An incomplete scope. A forgotten production line distorts all the calculations and is discovered at the audit.
• Reconstructed data. Without logging as you go, the treatment indicators and nitrogen balance do not hold up against the supporting documents.
• An ignored blocking criterion. You can accumulate points on three grids and fail on a single requirement.

None of these causes stems from the technical difficulty of the standard. They stem from preparation — as in any third-party certification, whether France’s organic certification or an industrial quality standard.

Take action

Start with the self-assessment across the four themes, then decide between level 2 and level 3 while factoring in the EGalim deadline of 31 December 2026, and consult two or three certification bodies on the cost of the full cycle. For the whole scheme — levels, standard, audit, valorisation — see our guide to HVE certification and download the free ebook that goes with it.