THE ST. Mary Banana Estates and the Victoria Banana Company in Clarendon have both been awarded ISO 9002 Certification for their quality management systems. This follows the certification of Eastern Banana Estates in June, last year. Auditors KPMG Peat Marwick of Canada said Eastern Banana Estates was the first in the world to achieve ISO certification. All three farms are managed by the Jamaica Producers Group and jointly produce more than 30 per cent of the island's banana exports.
A news release last week quoted Owen Glave, Special Projects Manager with responsibility for the Group's quality management programme, as saying that "ISO certification was achieved within the scope of production, harvesting, processing and shipping."
Mr. Glave, explaining the significance of certification, said "these standards ensure that our products consistently perform to the market's quality requirements. Achieving ISO 9002 Certification validates Jamaica Producers' continued commitment to world-class quality. ISO standards fully support the company's plan to effectively serve the domestic and international markets."
He said ISO (International Standards Organisation) is a worldwide federation in 130 countries, established in 1947 and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. Within ISO, each country is represented by its national standards body. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI), for example, represents the United States, in the same way that the Jamaica Bureau of Standards represents Jamaica.
Mr. Glave said "the objective of ISO is to facilitate and promote international business and trade through the exchange of goods and services. ISO 9002 standard represents good management practices and aims to ensure that organisations can consistently deliver the products or services that meet their clients' quality requirements. Consequently, certification attests to the farms' quality systems, which test models for quality assurance in production, harvesting, processing and shipping to ensure that only the highest quality fruits are shipped to the UK."
