Accreditation Program NIASA

The Nursery Industry Accreditation Scheme Australia (NIASA) is the national nursery industry Best Management Practice (BMP) program for production nurseries growing media manufacturers and greenlife markets and underpins the Australian Plant Production Standard (APPS) – a holistic system designed to ensure a sustainable future for the Australian nursery industry.

General Manager Dan Ewings says, “Engaging with the NIASA best practice program fits with Alpine’s core values and future goals. The program also gives us the opportunity to benchmark our sites while providing training for our staff. Being accredited gives our customers a quality assurance for both stock and environmental standards.”

Joining the program is not as simple as just ‘signing up’, growers undertake a series of audits and step change improvements over a 6 to 12 month period that cover off everything from crop hygiene, best practice management, water management, growing media supply to freight and logistics. This process is great for Alpine as we have identified and develop several major improvement projects including investing in a state of the art irrigation water treatment system at our Dural site.

Changes to the accreditation scheme in recent years sees growers audited on tree growing techniques to test for compliance with AS2303 Tree stock for landscape use. The NIASA program is governed by Greenlife Industry Australia (GIA), with audits completed by highly trained plant protection officers, the program starts with compliance but has a focus on continuous improvement with annual audits and ongoing support to growers.

An important question to consider – are you purchasing stock from an accredited nursery?