Supply-Chain Traceability

Procurement High Ambition Off-taker Trader Downstream supply chain actors

Definition

A traceable supply chain records key data, like price, location, and certification, across all parties from farmer to consumer, ensuring two-way transparency. By leveraging technologies such as Blockchain, it enhances accountability, strengthens farmers' bargaining power, and encourages better conditions driven by consumer and stakeholder scrutiny. For buyers, whether they are offtakers, traders or retailers, it reduces losses from counterfeit goods, improves compliance, and bolsters their reputation as leaders in responsible procurement.

Lead Actors

Off-taker; Trader; Downstream supply chain actors

Target Demographics

Farmers; Off-taker; Retailer; Trader

Objectives addressed

Farmer related

Increase farmer income: Supply chain traceability can help farmers to demonstrate the origin and quality of their produce, providing a competitive edge. This may lead to increased market access and the potential for premium pricing, enhancing the income of farmers.

Increase climate resilience: Supply chain traceability can function as a critical enabler by allowing downstream companies to direct their sustainability priorities and investments—such as regenerative agriculture and carbon reduction—towards farmers, encouraging farmers to adopt sustainable agricultural practices. This may involve minimising the use of chemicals, optimising water usage, and reducing the environmental impact of farming activities, while simultaneously adopting practices that increase their adaptive capacity to adverse climate events. Without traceability, these initiatives often fail to gain traction.

Improve market access: Supply chain traceability can help farmers to demonstrate the origin and quality of their produce, providing a competitive edge, leading to increased market access.

Business related

Improve sourcing efficiency: Supply chain traceability can improve sourcing efficiency by enabling direct identification of farmers meeting quality and compliance requirements, thereby reducing staff and transport costs, and minimising quality losses through precise, data-driven decisions.

Strengthen organisational processes: Supply chain traceability can enhance operational efficiency by providing real-time visibility into the movement of produce, reducing the time and resources spent on manual tracking.

Increase revenues: Supply chain traceability can help farmers to demonstrate the origin and quality of their produce, providing a competitive edge, leading to increased market access.

Address sourcing needs: Supply chain traceability can support buyers in consistently meeting sourcing needs by providing verified data on volumes, quality, and reliability, while enabling informed decision making that improve supplier accountability and reduce buyers' compliance related risks.

Attract investment: Supply chain traceability can improve the marketability of both the final product and the buyer by demonstrating verified quality of the produce, responsible sourcing practices, risk mitigation and transparency—key elements that attract investors seeking responsible and future-proof businesses with a long-term value creation perspective.

Contexts Best Suited to

Adequate access to farmer data or Farm Management Information System: allows traceability to farm-level.
Crops for export: where traceability is required where investment rewarded with premium prices.

Key Risks

Technological risks: digital infrastructure needs to be well developed and maintained.
Social risks: risk of market exclusion for producers who do not comply with new regulations, e.g. EUDR.

Environmental Impact

Positive: Supply-Chain Traceability helps to source deforestation-free produce sending powerful market signals upstream.

Ambition level
High

Time

Main time needed is to implement digital infrastructure to allow for traceability across value chain.
Time also needed to convince other actors to change practices.