ESCONDIDO, CA - Produce traceability is here, and here to stay, industry veteran and Director of Sales for AgriNow Jim Heil tells me. In an era where most major U.S. retailers now require Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI) stickers on all packaging, if you aren’t yet compliant, it might be time to start looking for help in making the transition. And luckily for the produce industry, Jim is here to make the assist.
“Pure and simple, AgriNow is a produce traceability company that offers cloud-based PTI compliant traceability solutions that are affordable, simple to use, and easy to get started,” Jim explains when I ask him to get down to the basics of the program. “We offer four unique plans that are tailored to fit your business. It doesn’t matter if you’re a large grower in Mexico managing several hundred thousand acres with multiple packing locations or a small blueberry grower in Georgia with only five acres—we have a plan to fit your needs.”
If you’re scratching your head trying to figure out what this all means, fear not! Jim is no stranger to helping others navigate the complexities of produce traceability. Over the course of his 38-year retail career, Jim was tasked with roles including Retail Sales Manager, Director of Quality Assurance, Retail Buyer, FOB Sales, Special Accounts Manager, and, ultimately, Traceability Project Manager. Now, with AgriNow, he is drawing on those experiences to craft what he believes is one of the finest traceability solutions in the industry today.
“The number one benefit in choosing a company like AgriNow is our ability to manage change within the produce industry,” Jim expounds. “Put simply, we take the worry out of owning a traceability solution as we can remain flexible where others cannot. For example, Walmart recently asked for traceability stickers to include GS1 UPC-A 12 digit barcodes along with PLU numbers, and because our solution is cloud-based, we were able to make those changes for our more than 2,000 growers in six different countries and go live in less than one week’s time. I’m not sure anyone else can say that.”
AgriNow understands that PTI compliant traceability is new to most in the industry and is a bit complicated, Jim says, and one of the company’s priorities, which he asserts is above and beyond those of his competitors, is that the team goes to great lengths to make sure things stay simple and easy to understand.
“While AgriNow’s lighting fast GTIN data and managements systems, as well as its ability to build a system anywhere is world in less than one hour makes us unique,” Jim continues, “It’s our level of service, expertise, and commitment to helping your business succeed that truly separates us from everyone else.”
If while reading this you’re thinking to yourself, “it’s time I get PTI compliant,” and are looking to learn more about what AgriNow can do for your produce business, hop on over to www.agrinow.com. And for more on high-tech and innovative solutions to make every step of the supply chain that much easier, stay with AndNowUKnow.
