Product and service quality are important to Ballance. As well as our internal quality assurance programmes, we subject our most popular products to external auditing. Two such programmes are the maximum heavy metals content for fertiliser products, goverened by the New Zealand Fertiliser Manufacturers' Research Association, and the independent Fertmark scheme.
Trace levels of heavy metals occur in the earth's crust and therefore can be found at low levels in phosphate rock and other raw ingredients of fertilisers. The natural concentrations in the raw material will fluctuate and this may be reflected in the end product. Member companies of the New Zealand Fertiliser Manufacturers' Research Association have agreed maximum limits for the most common heavy metals in their products.
The declaration form can be downloaded here. This form may be used to help meet New Zealand GAP and EurepGAP requirements.
The Fertmark programme was established in 1996 to give New Zealand farmers confidence in the quality of fertilisers and the associated advertising. Members of the Fertmark scheme must observe the Fertmark Code of Practice.
Should a company wish to have a product added to the Fertmark register, it must formally apply to the Fertmark authority. The company has to provide a list of declared values for specified nutrients (and forms of nutrients) in the product. The company's own testing programme and the Fertmark audit programme are used to ensure product compliance with these values.
Ballance currently has fourteen products registered with Fertmark. These are:
Download the Fertmark certificate for Ballance products
More information on Fertmark can be found at the Fertiliser Quality Council website
