Consider engaging an expert to help you understand your system and identify where it can deliver better value.

QUALITY assurance (QA) is one of those variables now under review as producers look for savings. If you are reviewing your QA systems, here are a few things to consider.

Do my customer(s) require me to maintain a QA system?

Have your customers formally asked you to keep a specific system?

I am a strong advocate for an annual QA health check. This means reviewing whether your current system still meets your business needs. If it continues to satisfy the formal requirements of your largest customer or customers, it may also be worth doing the sums to decide whether the returns still justify the cost of managing and maintaining the system.

Before making any decisions, speak with your sales contacts.

If this feels too difficult to tackle on your own, consider engaging an expert to help you understand your system and identify where it can deliver better value. The GFSI base schemes have networks of specialists you can draw on for support.

Compliance elements can become somewhat habitual, and reviews are often rushed during the peak growing periods to precede the start of the busy harvest window. Elements like produce and water testing may not have been adjusted when the trading customers have — are they still fit-for-purpose? Is it possible to make changes to reel in costs?

This is where “QA Health Checks” are a great tool for realising opportunities for effective change.

Is there a way I can make changes that reduce my costs?

Freshcare has introduced allowances that allow producers to defer audits during challenging times. This could give you the opportunity to better align with other producers in your area. Working together to organise larger audit runs can spread fixed costs, such as travel and accommodation, across more businesses therefore lowering costs overall.

Audit runs don’t only occur with Freshcare (despite it being the biggest GFSI program in the nation). A run could include SQF or HACCP audits which might also be occurring in your region, so it pays to pick up the phone and engage your neighbours and your certification body. Explore the options as it could lead to savings.

Freshcare also has a ‘Two-Part Audit Program’, which allows for up to 50% of the audit duration to be conducted off-site.

Freshcare has introduced allowances that allow producers to defer audits during challenging times.

Sometimes the toughest challenges can open the door to new opportunities.

For further information, please see the ‘Two-Part Audit’ Factsheet that has been published by Freshcare for its food safety programs. Perhaps this could help to reduce audit costs.

Can I adjust my activities to extract more value from my system?

If you are a capital heavy business, are there ways that you can make your capital do more? Can you rent out cool stores? Can you contract pack for other producers? Can you provide horticultural services for other producers in your quieter production periods? Your QA system is fluid, so adjusting the scope of the system, can be a way to spread the costs of QA.

Are there export or other market opportunities you could move into? It’s worth taking a look. With Hort Connections 2026 coming up, why not take advantage of the subsidies available and attend Australia’s biggest horticulture event?

I’ve seen local growers switch up what they’re growing and breathe new life into their businesses. Sometimes the toughest challenges can open the door to new opportunities. As the saying goes, pressure creates diamonds.

If you dissolve your QA system, it is likely that you will not pick it back up again in the future.

It takes a big emotional battery and commitment to adopt and maintain a QA system. If you dissolve your system, do you have the resources to recommit to it in the future if it becomes necessary again?

Could taking a break result in higher recommitment costs due to evolving system requirements?

Nobody can answer this as we aren’t blessed with a crystal ball. However, history shows that GFSI requirements were reviewed in 2020, prompting program changes, and GFSI-certified program owners (CPOs) are currently rolling out updates. For example, SQF is moving to Version 10 following the adoption of the latest 2024 GFSI criteria.

“ It may be easier to stick with your system for the long term, than dissolving it to satisfy the short term. ”

If things are becoming too much…that’s okay! Your mental health is, and should remain, a key priority. There are a range of systems and support programs that are available (many of them free) to assist you and your business, so lean on your peak industry body representatives (like myself and the vegetablesWA team) for support — we are here to support you.