Pricing organic cotton...

Feature >>> Tracenet – A traceability
system for India’s organic production
Regional focus >>>
India
By Prabha Nagarajan, Regional Director India, Textile Exchange
The increased awareness in the export markets and a growing need for traceability
and accountability of products, saw APEDA, the agency set up by the Ministry of
Commerce to Christina promote Boecker, and regulate Sekem the export of agricultural and processed foods
from India launch successful traceability programs for grapes ( Grapenet) and
pomegranates ( Anarnet ) in the mid 2000s. This has now been followed by
TRACENET, a pan India, web based system to enable regulation, compliance and
monitoring of all organic production. The system was launched in May 2010 and
became mandatory in June 2010. Prior to this APEDA (the Agricultural and
Processed Food Products Export Development Authority) conducted more than 29
training programs for stakeholders all over India. Trials have also been conducted
and feedback sought before the formal launch.
All the accredited certifiers have been co opted by APEDA to register all the
operators who are engaged in organic agricultural production. These operators are
assigned a unique 12 digit Registration number, and issued a Registration
Certificate, after obtaining all the details such as name, address, area, scope of
activity and number of farmers etc. It is well worth remembering that India has been
the first country to introduce the concept of group farming, and that several farmers
in one group get managed by one Internal Control System (ICS). It thus becomes the
responsibility of the ICS to ensure data entry of all the farmers in the group for
Tracenet. If this is not possible then the Certifying body would take on this
responsibility.
The ICS manager inspects individual famers and forwards the reports to the
Certification Body for verification and issuing of Scope Certificate. All Scope
certificates and Transaction Certificates carry barcodes with unique ID for the
exporters and for the Consignment.
Key advantages of Tracenet are:
A user friendly software that
can be used 24/7.
Reduction in duplication of
data capture.
Instant reference to previous
steps in supply chain is
enabled.
Built-in checks and balances
that ensure compliance.
Documents can be issued only
by going through the
software.
Enables APEDA to trace
details of a consignment right
down to the plot level.
Photo courtesy: bioRe, India
Quite simply traceability would mean the ability to track back or trace the history of
a product through recorded means, from farm to final product. APEDA lists the key
principles of traceability as follows:
Identify products, production batches or logistic units.
Record all successive links in the supply chain between production batches and
logistic units.
Record traceabilty data throughout the supply chain.
Provide the downstream partner with all the information required to ensure
product traceability.
Providing for the above, the features of Tracenet ensure that all key stakeholders
from farmers, groups, ICS Certification Bodies and APEDA are well integrated.
APEDA has also held review meetings in various locations in India with stakeholders
to identify and iron out teething issues.
The Tracenet thus offers system based traceability, and is expected to ensure a
superior control of the production and certification system. The big challenge of
dealing with a complex supply chain can be better dealt with. Indeed Tracenet can
be seen as a bold and strategic initiative to put India firmly on the map for
agricultural exports, especially organic produce such as cotton.
Overpage: Find out how Tracenet works.
“Quite simply traceability would
mean the ability to track back or
trace the history of a product
through recorded means, from
farm to final product.”