Information about Trace-SP

This is the Traceability Solution Platform supported by Initiative for Sustainable Agricultural Supply Chains (INA), an association of players from within the private sector, civil society, and politics. INA is looking into digital solutions that support producers and increase supply chain transparency. INA intends to create a platform that will inform agribusiness stakeholders about the different traceability solutions currently available on the market. 

Since the understanding of traceability and traceability solutions can mean different things to different actors, we propose the below definition:

“Traceability implies that information on origin of the agricultural produce and on sustainability characteristics are documented and linked to batches of the produce, and subsequently of processed products, that such information is preserved and transmitted all along the value chain.”.

Therefore, agri commodity traceability should encompass three primary dimensions:

a)      ensure transparency on the origin of the agri commodity;

b)      link sustainability characteristics to the commodity and to the resulting products;

c)       document the chain of custody and transfer sustainability characteristics, from farmer to end product (and back).

Ø  The first dimension documents where the (batches of the) agri commodity entering the supply chain, have been produced.

Recently the idea of “origin transparency levels” has been introduced, which is linked directly to the earliest stage in the supply chain to which sustainability information can be attached. 

Ø  The second dimension of traceability links sustainability and other characteristics to (batches of) the produced and processed agro-commodities. It is important to acknowledge that not all relevant characteristics are linked to the farm, farming plot or to the farming household. Other characteristics (e.g. child labour risk mitigation, forest preservation and restoration, post farm supply chain sustainability, … as per figure below) may be related to the producing community, the cooperative, the agri commodity growing area, the transportation / processing steps in the supply chain, etc.

Ø  The third dimension of the proposed traceability concept is twofold.

o   First it documents all steps in (dis)aggregating, transporting and processing of the agri commodity, in its different forms of processing, and later on of the resulting end products.

o   Secondly it transfers information on origin and sustainability characteristics, from lots entering a step and lots exiting a step, and this all along the value and supply chain.

This third dimension also includes feedback loops, ensuring that farmers and farmer based organisations benefit from and are empowered through the enhanced traceability. They shall be adequately informed on how the sustainability characteristics of their produce are valued, what related sustainability claims are made, what relevant market trends are relevant for them, etc. Innovations in financial and other aspects of traceability shall strengthen the market and bargaining position of farmers and farmer based organisations in the value chain and ensure they obtain tailored accesses to emerging value chain insights that are relevant for them.