Canadian Greenhouse Produce Leaders Select HarvestMark®

Feb. 2, 2010 - PRLog -- YottaMark, Inc., the leader in traceability and authentication solutions, today announced its HarvestMark fresh food traceability solution was selected by leading Ontario greenhouse produce shippers Huron Produce, Ltd. and Jem–D International (JDI).

Huron will deploy HarvestMark item and Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI) compliant traceability for its peppers, mini cucumbers, beefsteak tomatoes and tomatoes on the vine.  JDI will deploy HarvestMark item-level traceability for its packaged peppers, mini cucumbers, beefsteak tomatoes and cocktail tomatoes. Traceable products will be arriving at select retail stores in February.  

“As a trusted supplier of quality produce in Canada, we take great pride in our growing practices and food safety programs,” said Jeff Kints, vice president, Huron Produce. “We sought after a solution that would help us comply with PTI while delivering a new way for our customers and consumers to learn more about our products.  We found what we needed and wanted in HarvestMark.  We look forward to including traceability as part of our offering and bringing new values and benefits to our customers.”

“Traceability and timely communication across the supply chain are critical for our industry," said Jim DiMenna, president, Jem-D International.  “Our retail customers and consumers want more information about our products and our world-class hydroponic growing practices.  With HarvestMark, we can deliver instant access to traceability information and learn more about our customers’ preferences and product quality so we can continually improve our operations and deliver highest-quality products year-round.”

The Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI) is driving changes to improve whole-chain traceability and enhance food safety response programs.  It calls for shippers to apply GS-1 compliant traceability labels to cases of produce.  HarvestMark PTI provides a flexible, easy-to-deploy solution to address these requirements, and more.

As part of these two programs, cases of produce will receive PTI-compliant labeling and individual clamshells, bags and cases of produce will carry unique HarvestMark codes. Simply entering a code at Harvestmark.com will lead consumers directly to information about that specific item including variety, origin, food safety notices and other valuable product information.  Access to on-demand information on product quality and time-to-market help enhance product and category management.    

“Jem-D International and Huron Produce are both established leaders in the greenhouse produce industry, and we are excited that they have selected HarvestMark for their traceability platform,” said J. Scott Carr, president and CEO, YottaMark. “By working closely with grower/shippers we’ve developed a platform that meet all the demands of PTI, and offers the ability to take traceability all the way to the consumer.  We are excited to extend our work into Canada with the Huron Produce and Jem-D International partnerships.”


The HarvestMark solution gives individual items or cases a unique identity that links to harvest, packing, and supply chain information.  The HarvestMark Portal provides instant trace-back, and easy access to distribution, quality, and food safety information. HarvestMark PTI works with a wide range of packing workflows providing shippers the flexibility to print PTI-compliant case labels either on-demand or in volume; at the packing line, in the field, or at the cooler. HarvestMark PTI includes tools developed by the HarvestMark team to simplify and speed the assignment of Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs) to each of the shipper’s product configurations, manage GTINs across their business, and easily share this information with buyers.

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YottaMark, Inc. specializes in product traceability and authentication solutions. HarvestMark®, the fresh food traceability solution from YottaMark, is the industry's fastest growing traceability application. To date, over a billion produce packages have been enabled with HarvestMark codes to speed response to suspected recall events and deliver on-demand product information throughout the supply chain. Designed for field- and line-packed produce, HarvestMark offers a complete suite of traceability solutions, including PTI and item-level. It accommodates a wide range of workflows with an open platform for seamless integration with existing systems. HarvestMark supports a variety of packaging formats making it quick to deploy with no interruption to business operations.