Traceability is becoming a critical part of modern agriculture because it provides information about provenance, authenticity, chain of custody and enhances food safety measures.

Although traceability in some form is common in horticulture, increasing challenges with the interoperability of systems and data standard agreements make it difficult for growers, retailers and government to work together.

AUSVEG Strategic Partner, FreshChain Systems recently completed a potato and cherry traceability, property location, and provenance pilot project with Food Agility CRC, the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, GS1 Australia, Woolworths, Mitolo Family Farms (potatoes) and Cantrill Organics (cherries).

This report describes the results from the project’s pilot trial of adopting digital traceability in two horticulture production systems.