What is GAFTA? Contracts, sampling and arbitration rules

GAFTA, The Grain and Feed Trade Association, is the London trade body behind the standard contracts for grain and animal feed. It also issues the sampling, weighing and arbitration rules those contracts refer to, and keeps registers of approved superintendents and analysts. On its contracts page, Gafta estimates that 80% of the world's trade in grain is shipped on its forms (September 2026).

What GAFTA is and what it does

The association goes back to the London Corn Trade Association, founded in 1878 so that corn traders could use standard forms and settle disputes by arbitration rather than in court. In 1971 it merged with the Cattle Food Trade Association, a feed-trade offshoot of 1906, into the Grain and Feed Trade Association. Gafta gives its membership as over 1,900 members in 100 countries (September 2026), from traders and brokers to superintendents, analysts, fumigators and arbitrators.

The GAFTA contract family: forms by type of delivery

There is no single "GAFTA contract". The list on gafta.com holds about ninety numbered forms, rules and addenda (September 2026). Most trading forms are drafted for one type of delivery, often from a specific origin, and most were reissued with effect from 1 July 2026.

Type of delivery	Examples of forms
CIF / C&F, seaborne	48 (Central & Eastern Europe), 30 (Canadian and USA grain), 40 (Argentina or Uruguay), 80 and 80A (EU grain), 100 (feedingstuffs in bulk)
FOB, seaborne	49 (Central & Eastern Europe), 64 (general grain), 119 (feedingstuffs), 120 (rice), 82 (general goods)
Rail and road	78 (goods by rail), 78UA (goods by rail and/or road)
Inland waterways	47 (delivery by inland waterways, Central and Eastern Europe, in bulk, FOB)
Containers	88 (full container loads, CIF / C&F), 89 (FCA), 90 (ex store / FCA)
Ex store, silo and delivered	109 (feedingstuffs ex store/silo), 110 (grain ex store/silo), 111 (delivered at destination)
Separate rules	123 weighing, 124 sampling, 125 and 126 arbitration, 128 mediation, 130 register of analysis methods, 131 optional clauses, 132 fumigation

C&F (cost and freight) works like CIF, except that the seller does not insure the cargo. FCA (free carrier) means the seller delivers to a carrier nominated by the buyer; ex store means the buyer collects from the seller's store.

On 30 June 2026 Gafta retired a number of forms, among them 27, 97, 98 and 100A. The search list can still show them, but the PDF behind each states that the form is no longer in use. The current list is on the Gafta contracts page (consulted September 2026).

The form decides who does what. Under a CIF form such as 48, the buyer pays against shipping documents; under an FOB form such as 49, the buyer nominates the vessel and presents it for loading. The detail per number is in the GAFTA contract numbers and what each one covers, and the documentary side in CIF contracts for agricultural commodities.

Gafta holds the copyright in every form: downloading one to trade on is fine, but republishing it on a website, in a trading platform or in any other commercial product needs its written consent. This article therefore describes the forms and quotes no clause text.

GAFTA 124: sampling and analysis

GAFTA No. 124, the Sampling Rules (reissued for contracts dated from 1 July 2026), requires sampling by an approved superintendent. Increment samples are drawn throughout loading or discharge, divided and reduced, then sealed, labelled and made up into sets of analysis and spare samples.

The analysis sample goes to an approved laboratory within a fixed period after sealing, and the superintendent retains the other samples for a set period. If the samples or the certificate of analysis are not sent on in time, a claim for rejection or allowances can be lost, unless the arbitrators decide otherwise. The laboratory's methods are fixed in Gafta No. 130; the mechanics are in the article on sampling rules in the agri trade.

Arbitration under the GAFTA Arbitration Rules

Every GAFTA trading contract carries an arbitration clause, and the trading forms are construed under the laws of England. The juridical seat is England and the Arbitration Act 1996 applies; hearings are normally held at Gafta in London, or elsewhere if the parties agree in writing.

GAFTA No. 125 is the standard procedure, which Gafta positions for more complex claims. As a rule the tribunal has three arbitrators. Gafta appoints a sole arbitrator if both parties agree, or if the respondent, asked to agree, neither agrees nor appoints an arbitrator of its own. The tribunal normally decides on documents and may grant an oral hearing on request. In most cases either party can appeal to a Gafta board of appeal, with notice and deposit due by noon on the 30th day after the award. A claim lapses if neither party files anything within a year of the notice of arbitration, unless it is renewed by notice in the 30 days before that date or by a new filing; renewals run a year at a time, up to six years from the first notice.

GAFTA No. 126 is the expedited procedure for smaller disputes: one arbitrator and no appeal to Gafta or to the courts. It applies only if both parties expressly agree to it, which they can do even when the contract refers to 125. A party that ignores an award can be named on Gafta's list of defaulters, and awards can be enforced abroad under the New York Convention of 1958. More in GAFTA and FOSFA arbitration.

The GAFTA Approved Registers

GAFTA contracts do not let the parties appoint just anyone: sampling and supervision need a Gafta Approved Superintendent, and analysis a Gafta Approved Analyst. Gafta runs three Approved Registers, for superintendents, analysts and fumigators. All of the following conditions apply:

• Superintendents must be Gafta members in Category C, work to Rules 123 and 124 and the register's Code of Practice, and hold either a certificate of conformance to the Gafta Standard for Supervision, Sampling and Check Weighing or ISO 17020 Type A accreditation with an appropriate scope.
• Analysts must be Gafta members in Category F, test to Gafta No. 130, take part in Gafta's ring test scheme (two rounds a year) with satisfactory results, follow the Code of Practice, and hold either a certificate of conformance to the Gafta Standard for Analysis and Testing or ISO 17025 accreditation with an appropriate scope.

The Gafta Standards exist for members who do not want or cannot obtain ISO accreditation. Audits to those standards are carried out only by NSF International (UK): the first on site, then remote each year, with an on-site audit every five years for superintendents and every other year for analysts.

The two ISO standards are compared in ISO 17025 versus ISO 17020.

The route onto the superintendents' register, and how FOSFA and NOFOTA recognition differ from it, is in how to become a GAFTA approved superintendent.

What GAFTA means in daily practice

For a trader, GAFTA fixes the form, the quality basis and the arbitration route. For a terminal or shipper, it decides who may sample and check-weigh. For an inspection company, it sets what goes on file per job: a sampling record that follows 124, traceable seals, retained samples and a certificate from a laboratory on the register. When the same figure is typed into each of those by hand, every retype is another chance to break the chain the rules protect. For how a cargo moves from contract to payment under these forms, see physical agri commodity trading.

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