Meeting The PTI Milestones
As the Produce Traceability Initiative looms, five growers reach out to software companies with questions and concerns.
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Ed Treacy, vice president of supply chain efficiencies with the Produce Marketing Association
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Kurt Alstede
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Chris Blanchard
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Robert Trax
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Chris Pawelski
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Brian Campbell
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Ahead Of The Game
Wish Farms, which has grown from the humble beginnings of an immigrant pushcart peddler to Florida’s largest strawberry shipper, expanded their expertise to traceability years ahead of the curve. Creating FreshQC to help with data collection and pay role tasks, they realized in 2005 that a movement towards more exact accountability was coming around the bend quickly, so they transitioned into the area in anticipation of the coming changes.
Being a multigenerational business in the industry, Wish Farms knew what they wanted in their traceability software and founded VirtualOne to begin developing the technology. “The knowledge of field processes and understanding of what would be appropriate for field use helped us create a system that would be tailored to the farming industry,” explains Minor Bolanos, manager of Virtual One.
Having hired an outside consulting firm familiar with the Department of Labor rules and regulations, VirtualOne made sure they were dotting there I’s and crossing their T’s. “Unless you have a sophisticated in-house team, developing your own traceability method is an arduous process.” He warns.
Despite the complicated process of creating the system, Bolanos molded a product he feels serves the winds changing with the incoming Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI). “We feel we have perfected our system for field packed consumer units to trace all the way back to the picker,” he says.
The reality of it is, though, that VirtualOne and its customers feel that the traceability aspect of their software is just a byproduct. “We get a return on our investment by improving quality control and worker accountability,” explains Elizabeth Peterson, public relations and social media manager at Wish Farms. “The peace of mind comes with knowing that we can trace the consumer unit back to a field location and harvest date, which PTI only addresses on a case by case basis.”
Bartels is assistant editor, horticulture group at Meister Media Worldwide.
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