It is preferable for suppliers of almonds to Costa Brothers to have a recognised Quality System in place. Where there is no recognised quality system in place, Costa Brothers reserves the right to inspect property conditions and practices. It is expected that suppliers will at all times facilitate this process.
If a registered quality system is in place a copy of the current accreditation certificate must be supplied to Costa Brothers.
Load Delivery
Before sending any almonds to Costa Brothers for processing all associated paper work is to be completed, signed and returned to Costa Brothers. Without these documents, it will cause delays when receiving your almonds.
Costa Brothers reserves the right to reject loads that do not have appropriate delivery information paperwork accompanying each load.
All loads must be delivered by a reputable carrier and trucks/transport must have been cleaned, washed and dried before loading of product. Drivers must sign QA document stating that the load is clean and free of debris.
All loads must be accompanied by a cart note that clearly states your name, date and variety along with the type of load (e.g. truck, trailer etc with some indication of weight or cubic metres).
All loads must be delivered clean, dry and are to be pest and rodent-free.
Loads to have minimal glass, shotgun pellets, sticks, rocks, dirt or any other foreign material. Growers that have excess foreign material will be charged at a rate of $1.00 per kilogram of foreign material exceeding the 12% allowable limit.
Sample Collection
AlmondCo Growers: Costa Brothers will separate and supply an 8kg sample per load dispatched to AlmondCo for grading, quality assurance, microbiological and MRL testing.
All Growers: Costa Brothers will collect three 500g samples from each batch/run. These samples will be used for quality assurance testing, retention, and microbiological and MRL testing.
Costa Brothers reserves the right to take a random sample of almonds from any grower, batch and/or variety at any given time.
All test results must be finalised before any product is released to any grower or for further processing, wholesalers, and/or the general public.
Sorting Specifications
Costa Brothers’ packing, sorting and grading specifications may be varied at the discretion of the Director or General Manager of Costa Brothers to allow for seasonal weather conditions at harvest, which may affect the final product.
If product contains an excessive amount of foreign material and requires multiple passes through colour sorting equipment Costa Brothers reserves the right to add any necessary surcharges or fees to offset downtime and/or delays caused within the facility.
Packaging
All packaging materials and products to be packaged must arrive at Costa Brothers no less than three (3) working days prior to production unless specifically agreed otherwise.
The Customer is responsible for ensuring all materials delivered directly or indirectly on its behalf, are suitable in all respects for proposed usage by Costa Brothers. Costa Brothers will take all reasonable precautions to ensure any defective materials are not used, but will not take responsibility should any defects be subsequently discovered.
Upon receipt of supplied packaging material, Costa Brothers shall examine for any nonconformity. Any packaging material that does not meet or exceed the product specifications required for use by Costa Brothers will be rejected.
Costa Brothers will ensure that all packaging material is stored in a cool, dry and clean place at all times.
Where Customer supplied materials are not delivered in time to meet scheduled production, which results in Costa Brothers incurring downtime, we reserve the right to recover all costs incurred for this downtime.
Whilst the utmost care is taken to avoid damage to supplied packing materials, use of any product supplied to us is at the Customer’s risk and Costa Brothers cannot be held liable for reasonable damage that may occur under regular processing conditions.
Costa Brothers does not accept liability for the status of or microbiological stability of any product that has been sorted or packed into recycled or reused packaging.
Dispatch
Risk in any goods passes to the Customer when the relevant goods leave Costa Brothers’ premises for delivery to the Customer, intermediary or agent.
To the extent permitted by the law, no Claim in respect of the Goods or the Supply may be pursued by the Customer against Costa Brothers, and Costa Brothers shall be discharged of all liability to the Customer in respect of the Goods and the Supply unless:
Costa Brothers has been notified of the facts, matters and circumstances giving rise to the Claim in writing within 14 days of their occurrence; and proceedings are commenced and notice of same provided to Costa Brothers within 90 days of when the Goods were dispatched, or should have been delivered, to the Customer or the Supply occurred (or did not occur), whichever is applicable.
Payment Terms & Charges
Payments for all accounts will be strictly as marked on each invoice. All products will remain the property of Costa Brothers until payment is received in full.
An annual interest and cost of carry charge will be calculated daily and charged to your account once a month on the statement date if payment is not made within terms marked on your invoice. Interest will be calculated by applying the applicable daily percentage rate to the overdue amount (the applicable annual percentage rate divided by 365)
We reserve the right to vary prices and rates in the event of changes or price rises made by wholesalers or other suppliers. Rates quoted are appropriate to the particular product at the time of quoting and these rates may change.
Without liability, Costa Brothers may cancel or suspend delivery or dispatch of other products or services yet to be supplied under any agreement with the Customer if accounts are not paid within agreed terms.
The Customer agrees to pay all taxes/excise on goods ordered, including but not limited to sales tax, goods and services tax (if applicable) as levied by The State and Commonwealth Authorities.
General Terms
This agreement shall be governed by and interpreted in accordance with the laws in force in the State of South Australia and the parties agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts in that State.
If by reason of any fact, circumstance, matter or thing beyond the control of Costa Brothers it is unable to perform in whole or in part any obligation under this agreement, Costa Brothers shall be relieved of that obligation under the agreement to the extent and for the period that they are so unable to perform, and shall not be liable to the Customer in respect of such inability.
No employee, agent or representative of Costa Brothers other than its Directors or General Manager has any authority to vary these terms and conditions without limiting the generality of the foregoing no warranty, representation, promise, agreement, terms or conditions whether express or implied.
The provisions contained in these terms and conditions replace all terms and conditions of any previous agreement between the parties.
If a Customer is declared bankrupt or fails to make payment for goods when due or fails to comply with any of the terms of the agreement resulting from acceptance of the order or being a company goes into liquidation, administration or under receivership, Costa Brothers shall have the right to terminate this agreement by notice in writing to the Customer. Termination pursuant to this clause shall not affect any rights of Costa Brothers acquired prior to such termination.
If any provision of these terms and conditions is invalid, void or unenforceable, all other provisions, which are capable of separate enforcement without regard to an invalid, void or unenforceable provision are and will continue to be of full force and effect in accordance with their terms.
The Customer’s failure to acknowledge these terms is not evidence that these terms do not apply. The Customer utilising Costa Brothers’ services is acceptance of these terms.
Upon inspection and before Costa Brothers accepts any Customer’s product, Costa Brothers may vary these terms at its discretion at any time by giving notice to the Customer in writing.
Costa Brothers reserves the right to amend or vary these terms and conditions at its discretion.
