Articles
INTEGRATED QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN FRUIT GROWING (1999–2000)
Product responsibility becomes an important factor.
In 1999 some European supermarkets (united in Europe) started projects for a regulation like Good Agricultural Practice (GAP).
Quality requirements for fruit are not yet demanded, but it is clear that these will become necessarily like other horticultural products.
Therefore, the Fruit Research Station started a project in 1999 to develop an integrated quality management system for fruit production.
The integrated quality management means the care for quality, labour and the environment.
With an integrated management system the production process will be clear, easier to transmit to others (in case of illness), and lead to less mistakes.
This gives advantages for both the grower and the customer.
The development is done by adapting the current systems use for glasshouse horticulture, based on ISO-9000 to a system for fruit growing.
Therefore, the system is introduced into four representative fruit farms.
In co-operation with the growers the systems developed by other Research Stations are adapted to their particular situation.
Differences between protected glasshouse units and fruit farms with respect to the integrated quality system are:
- Fruit farms mostly do not have fixed labour from outside the family
- Fruit growing is outdoor growing and therefore dependent on the weather and seasons
- Fruit growing requires a much longer life span; approximately 12 years for apple and 25 years for pear
- Some fruit growers direct sell to consumers (farm-sales) together with other sales channels
- In protected horticulture growers are already used to recording all factors of their production system.
Fruit growers in general only record the most essential facts.
Results of the project: an introduced management system at the participating fruit farms (summer 2000) and a handbook for fruit-growers that enables them to introduce the system at their own farms.