Tomatoes - Benfica do Ribatejo, Portugal
Management
Producer/Grower Organisation
The Producer/Grower Organisation provides technical assistance to the farm and also operates as a major link in the relationship between the farmers and the processors. The Producer/Grower Organisation employs a specialist agronomist who instructs the farms in the correct application, use and timing of all plant protection products.
Another very important aspect of the Producer/Grower Organisation is the relationship it has with the tomato paste processor. As the processor handles over 375,000 tonnes of tomatoes over the short harvest period, a continuous flow of product is essential to ensure the factory works to its optimum capacity and to enable all the tomatoes to be harvested at the best possible quality and within the designated time scales. One of the most important aspects behind the planning is the planting dates of the tomatoes; this is assisted by the Heinz hybrid variety cropping cycle (early, medium, late and full season varieties). The Producer/Grower Organisation plans the planting dates with the farmers, based on their soil types. Without this type of organisation by the Producer/Grower Organisation the farmers may end up harvesting tomatoes and not being able to deliver them into the factory, affecting the planned/contracted volumes. Tomatoes are perishable and so the quality will start to deteriorate, affecting raw material price that is paid for the crop.
Membership of a producer/ grower association provides advice and economic benefit to the farm.
Equipment
Benfica do Ribatejo uses technically-advanced equipment, enabling quick harvesting and harvesting at ideal crop conditions, leading to optimum returns for the farm due to higher quality tomatoes reaching the factory. Heinz has developed tomato varieties with firm fruits which are especially important for good mechanical harvesting and bulk transportation and also have very good field storage.
Use of advanced equipment brings economic benefits to the farm.
Records and traceability
The farm keeps extensive records for the tomatoes planted; including previous crops grown in the field, planting dates, tomato varieties used, and number of plants per hectare. All fertiliser use, plant protection products and management practices are recorded, and all this information is sent to the processor prior to the delivery of the crop. At harvest, a unique code is allocated to each load from the field and this follows the tomatoes to the factory where routine testing for BRIX (dissolved sugar-to-water mass ratio), physical quality and pesticides are carried out to ensure quality requirements are met prior to release into the factory. The unique code is retained all the way through the factory process and enables full traceability back to the farm and therefore to the on-farm records. This programme was initiated by Heinz in March 1999.
Good record keeping ensures strong quality control procedures from farm to factory.