UNITED WHEATGROWERS NZ
Quality Assurance Registration (QAgrainz)
Verifying traceability and adherence to New Zealand's industry standards of production, storage, and delivery to provide ultimate consumer confidence.
Scheme Type
National Industry Compliance
Audit Frequency
3-Year Cycle (Independent Audits via AsureQuality)
Best for
Arable Growers, Grain Merchants, and Food Processors across the NZ supply chain.
Grower Registration Fee
$450 + GST (Tri-ennial)
Who must register with the scheme?
You are required to adhere to QAgrainz certification standards if you:
- Grow Wheat or Maize crops intended for commercial processing or contractual delivery to major mills.
- Are a Grain Buyer or Processor legally required to verify product source origins and complete raw material traceability audits.
- Supply inputs to halal-certified food producers (such as Champion Flour Mills) and must formally verify harvest cargo purity.
- Wish to avoid market penalties—members of the New Zealand Flour Millers Association strictly accept grain shipments from registered, compliant operations.
The 8 Pillars of Field-to-Food Quality Control
The QAgrainz framework safeguards your harvest across every phase of your production:
- Paddock Identification & Sowing Verification — Establishing a reliable farm map tracking system to ensure grain lines can be traced precisely back to their original paddock.
- Nutrient & Fertiliser Tracking — Maintaining clean, auditable logs of all soil applications to minimize chemical leaching risks .
- Agrichemical Compliance Management — Documenting application dates, chemicals used, and matching manufacturer withholding periods.
- Pre-Harvest Hygiene Readiness — Thorough sanitation of combine harvesters, augers, transport trucks, and storage facilities before the harvest.
- Representative Field Sampling — Collecting unbiased 5kg benchmark samples from incoming field loads to definitively establish line grade qualities .
- Grain Drying Standards — Ensuring stored grain meets industry best practice for moisture and temperature, to protect stored grain from insect pests while maintaining accurate inventory records.
- Secure Grain Storage — Easily identifiable on-farm storage, supported by detailed records of the harvested grain, including variety, paddock of origin and any insecticides used.
- Contamination-Free Cargo Logistics — Every vehicle thoroughly cleaned and inspected before loading - no cross-contact with remnant proteins, prior cargo, or outside contaminants.
Faqs
Frequently asked questions
What is the history and background of the QAgrainz scheme?
The New Zealand Crop Quality Assurance Scheme, commercially branded as QAgrainz, was established to provide ultimate consumer confidence in locally grown grain by verifying traceability from field to food.
The program's evolution followed a clear industry timeline:
The 1998 Foundation: The original NZCQA industry taskforce was formed to manage a basic farm diary tracking system.
The 2003 Redesign: Recognising shifting global food safety regulations and the rise of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) standards, the taskforce partnered with AsureQuality to design a more robust, registration-based framework.
The 2004 Launch: The new QAgrainz system officially went live for the 2004 harvest. To alleviate grower concerns and secure industry-wide backing, the taskforce provided the first two seasons of registration completely free of charge, with initial audits fully funded by industry participants.
The 2006 Mandate: Industry adoption solidified rapidly. The New Zealand Flour Millers Association resolved that its members would strictly purchase grain from registered, compliant growers starting from the 2006 harvest. Due to clear operational alignments, maize growers and the Maize Growers Subsection of Federated Farmers were successfully integrated into the scheme shortly after.
How it changed farming operations:
The transition completely eliminated the old requirement of forcing growers to physically hand over paper diaries alongside their harvest grain samples. Instead, growers are empowered to keep their crop input, chemical application, and grain-handling logs in whatever format suits them best (whether digital spreadsheets or pocket notebooks), provided the data remains entirely transparent and verifiable during standard tri-ennial independent audits.
How are the membership accreditation statuses calculated?
Member listings on our secure database are updated based on real-time AsureQuality field audits:
Status A (Fully Accredited): Registered and passed third-party audit (Green Status).
Status B (Provisionally Accredited): Registered but awaiting field audit (Blue Status).
Status C (Correction Required): Audit completed; major non-compliances must be fixed within 12 months (Yellow Status).
Status D (Suspended): Critical non-compliance identified or failed timeline extensions; deliveries will be rejected by processors (Red Status).
Which regulatory and industry associations govern the scheme taskforce?
The board consists of trusted representatives from the New Zealand Bakers Association, NZ Flour Millers Association, NZ Feed Manufacturers Association, United Wheatgrowers (NZ) Ltd, and the NZ Grain and Seed Trade Association .
