Costa Group Sunraysia divisional manager (citrus) Tania Chapman says the “valuable research” conducted by SP Singh was embraced by her company as it was consistent with the safe-quality focus at the business.
Tania said Costa had citrus farms and packing sheds in the Sunraysia at Nangiloc and Colignan, just over the Murray in Trentham – a short hop across the SA border in Renmark – and as far north as Emerald and Dimbulah in Queensland.
She said for the Costa company – with its domestic and export markets – supplying safe-quality produce to customers was fundamental to the business.
“We have built our brands and our business on the promise of safe-quality citrus fruits, including lemons, limes, grapefruit, mandarins and oranges,” Chapman said.
“SP Singh visited three of our citrus pack houses during the 2022 harvest/packing seasons – here in Victoria, in NSW (which also packs for the Victorian) and Queensland.
“The company was keen to be involved in a project which might identify any potential issues or gaps in our own stringent systems, given our core values and business focus around sustainability, development and growth.
“He also went through each of our citrus packing locations and observed our post-harvest practices and procedures, with fruit samples collected in each one and sent for microbial testing as part of his project.”
Chapman said obviously every packing shed had different equipment, of different ages and manufacture, creating different pathways for the fruit to come across the line.
She said this also meant different post-harvest procedures, a processing system complicated by different importing countries with their diverse restrictions/requirements on what products can, and can’t, be used in the post-harvest process.
“So for us, as well as his own research, it was important with the work he was doing, for SP Singh to attend all of our sites and work there, alongside our key staff, to interact and observe our procedures to gain a full understanding of the processes and the different equipment which can be found on each site,” Chapman said.
“Costa is focused on getting the best outcome for its fruit, you have to get that right before anything else.”
“There is a lot of effort by many people across the business involved in growing and packing our citrus fruits – these trees are nurtured for the entire 12 months of the year and extra effort is added in throughout the growing season.
“It truly is a 12-month process to produce clean, quality citrus worthy of our customers and as a credit to our grower suppliers.
“The final part of the story for a citrus fruit is to get it through the packing shed and prepare it for its eventual journey, whether that’s around the corner to a local supermarket, or onto a ship or plane to a market on the other side of the world.”
Chapman said Costa was delighted to welcome “a renowned researcher such as SP Singh”.
She said he was a high-profile industry expert with a long history in citrus research.
“To have him coming into our sheds and observing how we do our work, and to be able to offer us suggestions on how we could potentially refine our processes to ensure our fruit has the best opportunity is something our business welcomes,” Chapman said.
“No business should be blind to the fact that things change every day, and to not open ourselves to experts in a field potentially blocks you off from making changes for better outcomes for both the business and the customer.”
“Costa is proud to be part of the greater Australian citrus industry and to see brand Australia grow alongside our own brand.
“So the work which we have helped SP Singh facilitate around microbial risk – and which is now available to the wider industry – means every citrus grower and packer has access to the knowledge and the processes which can be implemented to protect those brands both domestically and internationally.”
