TRANSPARENCY SEPARATES THE WHEAT FROM THE CHAFF
ftrace for the cereals industry
Global price pressures are a challenge that cereal producers and traders are having to face. Another is the difficulty of efficient product traceability and supply chain transparency, resulting from the batch mixing of bulk goods. How do you promote products that have beneficial features – such as regionality, sustainable production methods and the absence of harmful substances such as glyphosate – and differentiate them from products that don’t? How can quality benefits be communicated convincingly and be reflected in the pricing of the product? Read here about the solutions that ftrace provides.
A typical supply chain in the cereal sector
A typical supply chain in the cereals industry is depicted below. The individual processing steps can differ, depending on the product sold.
Planting
Cereals are sown.
Fertilisation
Fields are fertilised.
Harvest
Cereals are harvested.
Collection
Cereals are collected at the farming cooperative, cleaned and stored.
Milling
Cereals are ground into flour in mills.
Manufacturing
Retail products or intermediary products are produced from flour and other ingredi-ents.
Distribution
End products are stored in a central warehouse.
Transport
Products are transported from the central warehouse to individual stores.
Sale
Products are sold to consumers.
Food safety as a result of digitalisation
A rapid reaction is critical in a crisis situation. The company involved must immediately be able to identify and provide information about the origin, production process and members of the supply chain for the affected batch. By continual monitoring of the supply chain, a company is in a position to provide this information. Furthermore, a company is able to minimise risks – such as food fraud relating to the purity of a variety, origin, cultivation method or dilution with foreign substances. In this context, ftrace enables data to be retrieved at the touch of a button so that users are capable of supplying information to their stakeholders as soon as they are requested to do so.
Efficient and cross-company traceability
For cross-company traceability to be successful, the technical infrastructure of all members of the supply chain needs to be harmonised. To exchange information efficiently along the supply chain – from the farmer’s field to the retail store – a high degree of interoperability is required. With this in mind, ftrace offers various options for inputting data into the system. By combining supply chain information of key internal interest with statutory data, processes can be optimised sustainably and resource savings leveraged.
Sustainability information – an absolute must!
In which region were these cereals grown? How were soils cultivated, which pesticides and fertilisers were applied, and which raw materials have been processed? Does the product have certificates that vouch for its quality and sustainability? Well-founded information is an absolute must if a company wants to stand out from its competitors and position itself on the market with a verifiable quality promise.
Backing up a quality promise
Which suppliers can consumers trust? Consumers in the food industry are confronted with a vast range of products on a daily basis. On top of this, they are flooded with information that tends to unsettle them, rather than lead them towards an informed purchase decision. ftrace helps to reduce the complexity and build confidence by creating transparency in the various supply chains. Scanning the product packaging provides the consumer with information about the production of raw materials, individual production steps or specific quality or sustainability standards – while still standing in front of the supermarket shelf. And it will be this information that determines whether your product lands in the shopping trolley or not!