The Accidental Auditor: Mase Cheng's Journey from Taiwan to Rural Queensland

Mase Cheng, Auditor of Freshcare’s programs, recently completed his Certificate III in Horticulture as part of his ongoing professional development and education requirements for auditing.

Based in Brisbane, for the past 15 years Mase, working in Quality Assurance, was looking for a change in career direction.

“I’d been through 15 years of audits in QA, I wanted to sit on the other side of the table,” said Mase.

“The job’s not for everyone as there’s a lot of travel being away from family, but with the kids being a bit older my wife and I said, why not give this a go.”

Mase says while completing his horticulture qualification was challenging, he knew it was essential to meet the educational requirements for auditing.

“At first, I thought that plants are just like trees… you water them, and they grow. But there’s fertilising, chemicals and much more. You’ve got to treat the plants like a baby,” joked Mase.

Driving over eight hours a fortnight to and from Bundaberg, meeting with his teacher, Mase completed his Cert III in Horticulture over two years. He says further professional education has been invaluable and helped him to better understand farming and the people he audits.

“I’m trying to understand how the businesses do things, I’m not there to be policing. The first thing I do is engage with the people, they know all about farming,” said Mase.  

“I know the process of how to make sure the food is safe and I’ll go in there to show them what’s the correct way, according to Freshcare, according to the standard.”

“I engage with them and help them, that’s the main thing, is going to help them.”

Before Mase moved into agriculture, he was a young electrician from Taiwan, destined for the United States but a chance meeting with “an Aussie guy named Chris”, soon changed his mind.  

“He told me how great the country was, so I thought why not try?” said Mase. 

After enrolling at the Central University of Queensland in Rockhampton, Mase completed a Master’s in Business Administration. His first thoughts on the region were “it was a bit too country,” he said. “But in the end, I was so appreciative and grateful for the opportunity.”

After graduation Mase moved almost 300km west, to the rural Queensland town of Emerald, working on a table grape farm. 

“When I got my job in Emerald, my life just sort of opened up. I never thought I’d work in agriculture, it was pure luck I ended up there,” said Mase.

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