National Traceability Project

Australia needs a better traceability system to underpin growth in agriculture. OIA Ltd has been collaborating with the Government and the wider industry on what a better system might look like. We think other sectors can learn from what the organic industry does and that we can improve our traceability systems and be better integrated with national systems.

  • Australia's traceability systems are costly, duplicative and inconsistent, which costs industry time, effort and money to navigate. A national approach is required with government and industry working together to co-design an efficient and streamlined traceability system that is future focussed.
  • Consumer demands are shifting. Australia’s traceability systems need to evolve to meet these consumer demands, through better capturing information across a supply chain (from farmto-plate). Otherwise, Australian producers may miss out on premium value and future market access could be jeopardised.
  • In some cases, Australian producers could already be meeting consumer demands but are not capturing the premium on offer as they lack the data, systems or infrastructure to verify claims that they could make to meet standards, such as production standards, organics and sustainability.

In April, OIA Ltd participated in the National Traceability Summit. The Summit provided a clear message to the Australian Government that we expect them to take the leadership. A summary of the Summit is provided in this video (link).

The Australian Government wants to co-design and engage on this, so that any strategy and roadmap are jointly driven by industry and governments under an Agricultural Traceability Alliance. This Alliance will get underway in coming months.

Attachment Size
Traceability fact sheet (Dept of Agriculture) (276.31 KB) 276.31 KB