Harmonised Australian Retailer Produce Scheme (HARPS)—the driver for change
(continued from last issue)
The project has been supported by the five biggest grocery retailers in Australia, namely Coles, Woolworths, ALDI, Costco and Metcash.
It is estimated that the fresh produce market share covered by these businesses is about 70% of the total Australian market.
The outcome of the QA Harmonisation project is the Harmonised Australian Retailer Produce Scheme (HARPS). Under HARPS, the major grocery retailers in Australia will accept a suite of base Food Safety Standards (Freshcare, GLOBALG.A.P., SQF or BRC).
Businesses supplying direct to retail customers can now undertake a single audit against an approved base standard + HARPS, that will satisfy all customers, rather than having audits against multiple standards.
Under HARPS all indirect suppliers will be required to be certified to one of the approved ‘base standards’. For most growers and grower packers Freshcare FSQ4 continues to provide the most appropriate on-farm certification.
Freshcare—GLOBALG.A.P benchmark initiative
Australian growers looking to enter key export markets are set to save significant cost and complication, with Freshcare seeking to provide a mechanism for compliance with both global and domestic food-safety certification requirements.
The popular, industry led Freshcare Food Safety and Quality Standard (FSQ4) has commenced the benchmark process against the widely accepted GLOBALG.A.P. Standard to provide an export market version for Australian growers.
The new initiative being delivered through Horticulture Innovation Australia (using vegetable industry levy funds and funds from the Australian Government) in partnership with peak industry body AUSVEG, will have a significant impact for growers in many export sectors.
Historically, growers have had to undertake a lengthy, complicated and costly transition to implement an entirely new food safety standard (GLOBALG.A.P.—standalone) for export market access.
Successful completion of benchmarking, and recognition of the Freshcare Standard by GLOBALG.A.P. would enable Australian growers to build on their existing food safety and quality certification (Freshcare) as a streamlined compliance process to access export markets.
The initial step in the process was to identify/clarify the requirements for Good Agricultural Practice (G.A.P) in the key export markets for Australian fresh produce, including a number of Asian markets and the Middle East; considering the required scopes: food safety, quality, environmental, biosecurity, worker welfare, etc.
With the scope of the benchmark confirmed, a gap analysis of the Freshcare Food Safety & Quality Standard (FSQ4) was conducted against the requirements of GLOBALG.A.P. Certification (v5.0)
A Freshcare ‘bolt on’ based on outcomes of Step 1 and Step 2 is now being developed to include as part of the formal benchmark submission to GLOBALG.A.P. Regular project updates will be provided through both the Freshcare website and industry communications, with the project due for completion by late 2017.
Getting Involved in Freshcare (continued next month)
See this article in Tree Fruit May 2017
