After years of working as a quality manager at large Dutch fruit importers and International exporters, Asmerom Abreha started Freshtech QMS in 2019. The company offers independent quality inspections, and damage/ loss assessment surveys reports for fruits and vegetables. It combines that with courses to train mostly overseas growers to meet international markets' standards.
"Originally, I'm an agronomist, specialized in fruits sciences and Postharvest technology. My team includes fruit technologists, post-harvest specialists, and food safety experts, and we offer a wide range of quality services. With more than 40 years of experience, our staff provides objective, independent, pragmatic services," Asmerom begins. "We not only do quality inspections but also train growers to further improve fruit quality throughout the supply chain to match European directives."
The latter is no easy task, the quality specialist admits. "It doesn't make it any easier that, in many Latin American countries, an exporter collects the fruit from the much smaller growers. The quality of the fruit arriving in Europe, thus, often varies greatly. Added to that, many supermarkets have their own above-legal standards. That's why that technical training is so important. It starts with the basics. For example, although kiwis and grapes are refrigerated at the same temperature, combining the two in the same refrigerator is disastrous," says Asmerom.
Freshtech QMS works closely with growers, service providers, exporters, importers, and warehouses. "We don't mind who we work for; we compile independent reports, we report what we see. That's paramount because an account manager's and grower's interests often differ. An average quality officer's basic fruit physiology know-how isn't that great. A batch of grapes may look fine now but may differ in few days due to different physiological factors."
"Thanks to our partner network, we're active internationally. We, for instance, work with partners in Chile and South Africa and have had a team in Peru for a few months now. We also want to start in Kenya in the coming months. We work with a Scandinavian company whom we do quality inspections in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany, and they do those for us in the Scandinavian countries. Every season is unique. We've been doing quality inspections of South African, and soft fruits from Chile in the last few months. And this season, to be fair, those mandarins haven't been as good as other years. But because less fruit was available, the market accepted that to some extent," Abreha explains.
Freshtech QMS uses the QC One inspection app. "It's perfect for preparing professional reports and sharing them directly with other chain partners." A trend of late is the increasing use of Artificial intelligence (AI) in quality controls. "I doubt quality checks will be done completely online; that's a pipe dream. It will always remain vital to check the fruit in person and share your findings," Asmeron concludes.
