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Exporting a Standard: Australian Nursery Practice Goes to the Gulf

Exporting a Standard: Australian Nursery Practice Goes to the Gulf

Ornatec International |

Archive record · Capability record · 2020s · Saudi Arabia

Good nurseries are not an accident. Australia formalised that idea in the Nursery Industry Accreditation Scheme, NIASA: national best-practice guidelines covering hygiene, growing media, irrigation and stock quality. This record traces how that standards culture travelled to the Gulf.

The heritage

In 1995 the family nursery became the first in Australia to achieve ISO 9002 quality assurance for horticultural production, wholesale and export. Standards are a culture before they are a certificate, and that culture has run through the business ever since.

The standard that travelled

As part of the Green Riyadh program, one of the most ambitious urban greening projects on earth, a Saudi Nursery Accreditation Program was developed, explicitly adapting NIASA's proven techniques to Saudi growing conditions under the program's Tree Management Office. The rigour is measurable:

  • Irrigation: mean application rate under 25 millimetres per hour, coefficient of uniformity above 85 per cent.
  • Plant health: hygiene protocols targeting the root diseases that quietly ruin nursery stock, including Phytophthora, Rhizoctonia and Fusarium.
  • Stock quality: specified and graded, so the tree ordered is the tree delivered.

Why this record matters

When we say our supply is held to standard, this is the tradition of standards we mean. See how it shows up in our accreditations.

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