Research from the Horticulture Innovation Fund

The Australian Table Grape Association (ATGA) through the use of the Horticulture Innovation Funds (Agriculture Victoria), improves the online Export Accreditation System.

Upon finalisation of the 2016-17 export accreditation season, the ATGA and Department of Agriculture & Water Resources (DAWR) recognised a number of processing and reporting limitations with the Export Accreditation System (EAS). Enhancing these aspects of the online system was prioritised by both agencies to ensure table grape growers could access a system that remained simple to use, whilst giving them every opportunity to become successfully accredited for export. It was also deemed critical that DAWR Audit Services team members could download accurate reporting data to assist in the efficient processing of over 250 grower registrations over a brief audit period (approximately 2-3 weeks).

ATGA Export Accreditation System log in page EAS online log in platform

Presentation: Online Accreditation Project Download PDF in new window (Note: this document does not meet WCAG 2.0 accessibility guidelines)

During a collaborative meeting between ATGA, software developer Geometry IT and members of DAWR’s Audit Services Division, all EAS “user groups" were recognised as having unique user-requirements and the working group would need to ensure any system improvements would compliment all parties. A number of system improvements were identified and subsequently prioritised for the 2017-18 export registration season. By prioritising the different requirements for the major “users” of the EAS (being growers, crop monitors, ATGA and DAWR staff), the ATGA was able to deliver several positive improvements to the system via this project. The efficiency of the EAS in processing high volumes of data may see other protocol markets incorporated into the annual ATGA registration process. Thorough reporting functionality not only improves communication between all parties during the audit process, but it also saves DAWR time when finalising the lists of approved growers and facilities for each protocol market(currently China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Thailand).