Kalamazoo Flower Group, LLC (KFG) of Galesburg, Michigan, is the first organization in North America to achieve the MPS Florimark TraceCert certificate. This certificate requires that the organization fulfill checkpoints regarding freshness of product, inspections, and best practices regarding inventory management, storage, distribution and traceability of purchased flowers and plants in the supply chain. KFC joins a list of floral companies from Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, and Italy with the Florimark Certificate.
Florimark TraceCert was developed for wholesalers and other traders. The KFG is a wholesale bedding-plant annual supplier servicing a large number of independent garden centers and big box store customers that span a wide geographic area. It was originally the Flower Marketing Division of the Kalamazoo Valley Plant Grower Co-operative and became its own company in 2007. Spring bedding-plants and potted annuals make up the largest share of business but also grow items for all seasons such as fall pansies, garden mums, perennials, and other potted holiday crops from over 150 acres of greenhouses.
The major greenhouse operations charged with managing the KFG, Sportel Greenhouses, Westrate Greenhouses and Wenke Greenhouses began the MPS-ABC environmental certification program. All have received their initial MPS certification for their environmentally friendly growing practices.
Says Kim Selleck, Quality Plant Inspector for the organization, “The audit was a thorough check on our quality control systems and practices. Over the past few seasons we have strived to update our quality checks, reporting systems and specifications. KFG growers are an integral part of our high quality by having excellent, professionally grown crops on par with other international growers. TraceCert allows us traceability in our supply chain and we look forward to continuing certification in the future.”
For more information, visit the MPS website: www.my-mps.com. For more information about Kalamazoo Flower Group, visit www.kalamazooflowergroup.com/
Grower inquiries
MPS is proud to have quality growers such as KFC in their program and welcomes grower inquires in North America to their west coast coordinator, Charlotte Smit at (805) 524-9685 or c.smit@usa.my-mps.com, or to the east coast coordinator, Sandy Hering at (508)758-3008, s.hering@usa.my-mps.com.
Source: MPS