4
INFO LETTER
Fruit, vegetables and potatoes
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Issue: 01/2013
Quality Assurance.
From farm to shop.
The OGZ fruit- und Gemüsezentrale Rhein-
Main eG cooperative is one of the biggest
suppliers of German asparagus, strawber-
ries, onions and bush beans. The activi-
ties of OGZ cover the southern Hessen and
Rhine-Hessen regions. The cooperative
delivers its produce to customers from two
locations, and quality assurance plays a key
role in the operations of the enterprise.
The producers’ cooperative was founded in
Griesheim near Darmstadt in 1967 and celebrat-
ed its 45th anniversary last year. “OGZ has al-
ways been a dependable partner for top quality
from the Rhine-Main metropolitan region”, says
Eduard Schendel (see photo), who is responsi-
ble for sales. The main job of OGZ is to market
the products of its members, and new tasks
have been added over the years. OGZ system-
atically tackles and implements all the duties it
is tasked with: as a service provider, it supports
and advises its members, most of whom are
certi ed in line with QS-GAP. As a QS-approved
coordinator, OGZ provides support services to
its producers, and this area has been the re-
sponsibility of Sabine Bickel as quality manage-
ment o cer since August 2012.
Marketing at two locations
Onions and potatoes are processed at the
central location in Griesheim. The service cen-
tre of OGZ in Lampertheim is responsible for
the processing and packaging of onions, bush
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IN BRIEF
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The number of scheme participants is increasing,
as a comparison with last year’s gures shows.
24,680
companies are currently registered with
QS, a rise of 3.1 percent since 03/2012).
What is particularly encouraging is the ongoing
increase in the number of foreign scheme par-
ticipants (plus 18.7 percent). This ensures ever
higher availability of products that consumers
can rely on – from farm to shop.
SCHEME PARTICIPANTS AND MARKETS
THE LATEST FIGURES
SCHEME PARTICIPANT
OGZ OBST UND GEMÜSEZENTRALE RHEIN MAIN EG
beans, strawberries and asparagus, and the
Agrarprodukte Hartmann GmbH & Co. KG (APH)
company, also in Lampertheim, handles the
marketing of selected products. APH is now a
wholly owned subsidiary of OGZ and, like OGZ
itself, also QS certi ed. The product range of
OGZ also includes gherkins, pumpkins, sweet-
corn and rhubarb.
Focus on quality
This is what OGZ Quality Manager Sabine Bickel
says about the quality policy of the coopera-
tive with its 102 members: “We are all respon-
sible for ensuring that our products are of the
very best quality when they reach the shelves
of our customers. The QS inspection system is
the ideal way to ensure this is the case. All the
relevant factors are taken into account, above all
with regard to the quality, traceability, hygiene
and safety of the products.”
Scheme participants in the chain
Fruit, Vegetables, Potatoes
Total
24,680
Of which outside Germany
5,378
Production
1
-
Fruit, vegetables
-
Potatoes
13,164
10,536
2,628
4,948
4,919
29
Wholesale
732
230
Food retail
10,784
200
1
Of which:
Producers with QS-GAP certi cation: 6,542, producers with recognised GlobalG.A.P certi cation: 3,115
Producers with recognised IKKB certi cation: 2,268, producers with recognised AMAG.A.P. certi cation: 124
As of: 1 March 2013
IMPRINT
QS Qualität und Sicherheit GmbH
Dr. Hermann-Josef Nienho (responsible)
Schedestraße 1-3, 53113 Bonn
Telefon:
+49 (0) 228 35068-0
Telefax:
+49 (0) 228 35068-10
E-Mail:
info@q-s.de
Internet:
www.q-s.de
Picture credits: QS archive, QS-live, Fotolia,
BVL, OGZ Rhein-Main eG
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Katrin Spemann Claudia Rotter Angelika Baden
Three times “10 years at QS”
Our colleagues Katrin Spemann, responsible for
the agriculture and feed sectors, Claudia Rot-
ter, an expert above all for residue monitoring
in fruit, vegetable and potatoes, and Angelika
Baden (personnel, secretarial o ce, central
services) have been dependable contacts at
QS head o ce for ten years now. We would like
to thank them for their e orts and commitment.
QS-live on site
In Hilden, “LandFrau” and QS-
live ambassador Lore Mauler
answered numerous questions
on the proper way to store fruit,
vegetables and meat, elding the
questions of visitors at the opening of a new Kaiser’s
Tengelmann supermarket. This is one of the ways in
which QS promotes communication with consumers
on the ground, informing them about the commit-
ment of the scheme participants to the production
andmarketing of safe foodproducts at the sales counter.
Conference on piglet castration in June
A conference on renouncing piglet castration will
take place in Berlin on 25 June 2013. The event will
be staged by the Federal Ministry of Food, Agricul-
ture and Consumer Protection (BMELV) and QS.