Background

International markets particularly European supermarkets have increased their environmental compliance specification for products delivered to them. Many growers and associated industries were well aware of quality assurance principles. This project aims to incorporate environmental management systems (EMS) into established QA practices.

Objectives

The project had four primary objectives:

• Identification of the environmental issues within key industries.
• The development of appropriate and practical EMS packages.
• Development of a marketing and delivery mechanism for EMS that meets the needs of growers, packers and processors and consumers.
• Development of a verification system to ensure that EMS components meet EMS objectives on a property, local, regional or state basis.

Key Achievements

• Workshops were held with the onion and olive industries to discuss current industry issues and interest in EMS. The olive workshop has identified the need for an environmental code to be developed.
• The project developed a system to meet the Eurepgap protocol for citrus growers. The project delivered the major elements of Eurepgap , strongly focussed on Good Agricultural Practice using currently existing programs and practices wherever possible.
• Preliminary audits indicated some industry adjustment was needed to meet the audit requirements. The level of understanding and cooperation achieved for a new program was excellent and has resulted in a simple technically competent system that will meet the wide ranging Eurepgap standard.
• Experience has been gained to develop the use of IT to reduce the cost of delivery, increase the level of understanding and apply a consistent standards across all participating growers.  However not all growers are ready to adopt this method of delivery.
• A manual and training program on the Eurepgap certification standards has been produced that is available for other industries.
• A reference list has been prepared of the best resources available to growers to comply with the standard set by Eurepgap.
• The package contains operating procedures and records that can be used in conjunction with other Quality Assurance systems and includes key areas of water management, OH&S, chemical and fertiliser use, waste, human impacts, energy and biodiversity using a risk management approach.
• The programs were funded using grower, PIRSA and Farmbis funding.

Project Leader:  David Pocock