KC Fresh

Today I visited KC Fresh. This is a company that produces fresh vegetables and fruits for both the domestic and export markets. Specifically they produce many Chinese vegetables and tropical fruits. I first visited a packing house and farm run by one of the farmers that grows vegetables for them. I saw Ung Choi (Chinese Morning Glory) being harvested which is the first picture below. We also visited fields of Basil and Lemongrass. There are several growers in this group and they all bring their produce to this lady’s small packing house. She also manages the planting to ensure a steady supply of product. They are very careful about food safety including testing their irrigation water to make sure there isn’t any contamination. The second picture shows a post that has the land and block number on it so that the products can be traced back to the small block where they were grown. The company treated me to lunch at a local restaurant where we tried some of their products. Everything was really good. After lunch I met with Carin Joubert. She is a Technical Consultant originally from South Africa. She makes sure that all of the requirements are met so that they can export to England, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Hong Kong and Japan. Over the years she has worked in many countries around the world. We discussed the challenges of working with the Thai farmers who only have .6 hectares of land on average. Many of her biggest challenges have to do with language problems; they don’t have words for many of the technical words we use in dealing with food safety. I really enjoyed talking to Carin and we had a wonderful discussion. She feels that she is making a difference in these farmers’ lives and I agree with her. This is a very interesting operation.