Almeria's greenhouse fruit and vegetable growers aim to boost the value of their fresh production with the goal of improving long term profitability and consequently ensure the sector's survival.
Under this premise, the University of Almeria is preparing the second edition of the course "Quality certifications for intensive agriculture in a protected environment", in partnership with Andalusia's Official Association of Agronomists and Consulting Engineers.
The directors of the initiative are Ángel Jesús Callejón Ferre, professor at the University of Almeria, and Juan Antonio Vargas, agronomist and agro-food consultant. The remaining lecturers will be David López, technical agronomist and Food Services business manager at SGS, and María del Pilar Alarcón, biologist and quality auditor at Sygma Certification.
The course will deal with numerous topics, including a description of the various quality systems in the agro-food sector and their main advantages; the several certification and auditing entities, as well as the stages in a certification process; the accreditation procedure for certifying and auditing entities; the importance of traceability, legal aspects and implementation stages.
The requirements for certifications such as Global G.A.P. and Tesco Nurture will also be analysed through an evaluation of practical cases. It will also deal with regulations, quality policies and integrated protection protocols.
Source: Elalmeria
