Buying channel
Oranges for a retail programme, and the audit
A retail programme buys a calendar and a specification before it buys any fruit. The paperwork goes first: the certificate the account insists on, the residue limits it applies on top of the legal maximums, and the audit that proves both. We hold no certification today, and that is the first thing a programme buyer needs to know about us.
The figures
| What it buys | Weeks of supply against a fixed written specification |
|---|---|
| Sizes | A narrow band, held from one delivery to the next |
| Formats | Consumer units or boxes ready for the shelf |
| Legal residue limits | Regulation (EC) No 396/2005 |
| Private standards | Set by the account, usually tighter than the legal maximum |
| Certification we hold | None at this date |
What it changes on an order
You are opening a supplier file
Ask for the certificate, its scope and its expiry date before you ask for a sample. A grower without one cannot be listed however good the fruit is, and finding that out after the tasting wastes a season for both sides.
Your account applies its own residue policy
Legal maximums are a floor and the retailer's policy sits below it. Send the policy with the enquiry, because it decides which sprays were allowed months before harvest and cannot be met retrospectively.
The programme has to survive a cultivar change
A campaign that runs from autumn into spring changes variety at least once. Write into the specification which properties are fixed and which are allowed to move, or every change arrives at your customer as a substitution.
What this note does not settle
- We are not a listed retail supplier and hold no certification today. Weekly capacity, packing options and audit readiness are unconfirmed, so this note describes the channel rather than our position in it.
- Private standards belong to your account. What they require, how often they audit and what evidence they accept are questions only that retailer can answer.
- Our own harvest dates for the coming campaign are not confirmed. The picking windows published here are regional and do not commit a delivery week.
Source: Regulation (EC) No 396/2005 on maximum residue levels
The certificate comes before the fruit
A programme buyer opens a supplier file with paperwork and reaches the tasting later. Certification and its scope, the audit history and the residue policy of the account are the gates, and a grower who cannot pass them never reaches the part of the conversation that is about flavour. We hold no certification today. That is a short answer, and giving it early saves everybody a season.
Residue policy deserves a line of its own because it cannot be fixed after the event. Retail standards sit below the legal maximums and they describe decisions taken in the orchard months before harvest. A grower asked in January to meet a policy issued in January is only able to answer for the following campaign.
A calendar with a specification attached
What a programme buys is a run of weeks at a written standard, which is a different purchase from a load of good oranges. Any campaign crossing from autumn into spring changes cultivar at least once, so the specification has to say which properties hold across that change and which are free to move. Left unsaid, every change reaches the shelf as a substitution.
Send the specification with the first enquiry rather than after a sample. It tells a grower in one reading whether the size band, the format, the certification and the delivery weeks are inside what the orchard is able to do, and it spares both sides a season of pleasant conversations that were never going to end in an order.
Talk to the grower
Tell us the variety, the sizes and the delivery week you need. You get a delivered price and what we can commit to in writing, from the person who picks the fruit.
The grower handles enquiries. Response times are still to be confirmed.