The Northern Ireland Food Chain Certification (NIFCC) has reflected on its progress over the past year and announced new roles for members and representatives at the group's 24th AGM in Lisburn.

Since being founded in 2001, the NIFCC has served as a non-profit company providing inspection and certification services to the Northern Ireland agrifood industry.

Speaking at the AGM, NIFCC chair George Mullan emphasised the importance of achieving sufficient surplus to support investment within the company.

He highlighted the need for investment in areas such as technology, infrastructure, and business resilience, so that farmers and processors can rely on secure, efficient, and modern certification services.

Progress

During the past year, the security of customers information has reportedly been a key investment priority for the NIFCC.

The certification body outlined that investment has allowed them to develop a system that migrates on-premise-held farm data to a secure cloud-hosted solution.

The NIFCC said that it has also "continued to enhance its digital inspection and certification platform by integrating three additional farm schemes, thereby enabling automation of data transfer, and further streamlining of internal processes."

In 2024, the NFCC successfully completed a UKAS accreditation audit and retained its Five-Star Certification Body rating for BRCGS.

AGM

The AGM formally marked the retirement of long-serving CEO and company secretary, Valerie McCann, with NIFFC chair, George Mullan paying tribute to her "hard work, drive, enthusiasm and commitment to NIFCC and all agri-food sectors.”

Following McCann's departure, Daphne Brennan has taken up the post of operations and compliance manager, and Pearl Campbell has expanded her role of finance manager to include company secretary.

Governance changes were confirmed at the AGM as Neville Graham was appointed by Dale Farm to act as its owners' representative, alongside David Rea.

Reshuffles were also made for ABP, as Aine Murray replaced Paul Reaney as processor representative on the Certification Committee and Colin Neill took over Sinead Furey's role as consumer representative.

Earlier in the year, Deirdre McIvor, who represented the Northern Ireland Pork and Bacon Forum, stepped down from the board of directors having served since 2021,

She has been replaced by Colin Henry, who will serve the remaining two years of her term.

NIFCC

On behalf of the NIFCC board, Mullan extended thanks to the inspection and administration teams for "their continued dedication in delivering high-quality certification services."

He said: "The hardworking and committed team at NIFCC who are willing to adopt new systems and ways of working has been key to our success.

“My thanks go to Valerie McCann, Daphne Brennan, Pearl Campbell and our two inspections managers, Robert Downey and Catherine O’Melvena, for their leadership throughout the year in driving these successful outcomes."

McMullan also expressed his gratitude for the support over the past year from the Certification Committee and his fellow directors.