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Washington tree-fruit growers

Washington State - the 'Fruit and Vegetable Bowl' of the US.

Tucked away in the north west corner of the US between Oregon and the Canadian border, Washington State is known as the fruit and vegetable bowl.  In fact 90 per cent of the US production of red raspberries, 80 per cent of seed peas, 75 per cent of the nation’s hop production, 58 per cent of US fresh apples and 47 per cent of cherries are produced there.

By far the largest crop, in terms of value, is apples.  Washington State produces 100 million 40lb boxes of fresh apples per year valued at US$962 million, with varieties including Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Gala, Fuji, Granny Smith, Braeburn, Jonagold, Cripps Pink and Cameo.  As well as supplying most of the major retailers in North America, Washington fruit packers ship their product to Britain, mainland Europe, and Asia.  These are very large, highly automated operations with sophisticated marketing and distribution arms.  

What’s this got to do with NCSI?  The tree-fruit industry has been gradually adopting the SQF codes since the first packing operation was certified to SQF2000 in 1998, long before the SQFI was established under the Food Marketing Institute in USA.  SQF1000 for the farming (orchard operations) followed in 2003.  Eva Lauve, Planning and Operations Manager from Stemilt, estimates that 65% of the total fresh apple production in the state is now covered by the SQF codes, and currently, NCSI is the only CB providing SQF certification within this industry.

NCSI has developed the program over eight years and remains focussed on expanding, six more packers are expected to join the program within the next twelve months. 

As Eva Lauve indicated at the recent Safe Quality Food Institute Conference held October 11, 2006 in Washington DC.  "We are firmly affixed in the SQF program and expect to remain and support its status to further safe food product in market places both domestic and overseas.“

NCSI is working with the packers in Washington State to harmonise the Safe Quality Food audits with US retailer requirements, and the additional expectations of European markets.  Wherever possible, NCSI will continue to reduce the impost of multiple audits to maximise benefits for the industry from the program.

“Our man in the US”, Dr Richard Dougherty, is an experienced and highly regarded food scientist who, along with his many other roles within the US food industry, manages the program in the US on behalf of NCSI.  As well as SQF, Dick now audits the British Retail Consortium for several of the packers and NCSI is working to integrate Eurepgap and Tesco’s Natures Choice for a number of the growers.

The tree-fruit growers and packers in Washington State still comprise over 80% of the SQF certifications in North America.  They are to be congratulated on their initiative in pioneering food safety and quality management certification in the produce industry in the US, and for their on-going commitment to the program.

Bill McBride, General Manager-Food Division NCS International acknowledges the above data was summarised from Eva Lauve’s presentation at the SQFI Conference, held in Washington DC, October 2006.