Transparency of Supply Chain

Transparency of Supply Chain

By David Lapp, Agricultural Process Engineer

Need a tool to help with Food Supply Chain Resilience to help verify and control your inventory through the maze of supply chain chaos?

With today’s Food Supply Chains in a constant state of flux and chaos there is an ever-growing need for transparency and verification, as an attempt at mitigating delivery challenges. Commodities throughout the world have been impacted first from Covid and now with the continuing Ukraine conflict.

Harris Poll conducted a poll late last year on behalf of Sisu, that revealed three important things:

• Supply chain issues are changing the way consumers shop,
• Brands’ reputations are taking a hit from supply chain incidents
• And keeping disappointed customers loyal is actually pretty simple.

The poll suggested that 64% of respondents had delayed inventory coming into their facilities.  Broken supply chains are on everyone’s radar and coming up with solutions to try and fix the problems is a real challenge.

The easiest solution to increase transparency in the food supply chain.

The USDA announced on June 1st, 2022 what they were planning to do:

The goals of USDA’s Food System Transformation framework include:

• Building a more resilient food supply chain that provides more and better market options for consumers and producers while reducing carbon pollution. While allowing more products to be produced.
• Creating a fairer food system that combats market dominance and helps producers and consumers gain more power in the marketplace by creating new, more and better local market options. As the product becomes more local it will have to be proved of where it is sourced.  (Tracing and traceability)
• Making nutritious food more accessible and affordable for consumers, That is why USDA’s Food System Transformation framework includes programs to ensure all consumers are able to access fresh, healthy, nutritious food.
• Emphasizing equity: For too long, rural communities, underserved communities, communities that experience persistent poverty, and the people who live there have been left behind. Where you live should not determine a fair shot at economic opportunity.

Essentially, additional funding will be made available for Processors from the USDA . This means that agricultural producers and processors can demand a premium, if they are able to provide transparency throughout their supply chain in order to verify organic products and verify food safety.

Transparency of data for Agricultural Processors demands that data must follow the Product from field to plate.

In order to achieve this transparency, there is a need for technical assistance to help capture the correct data and have it follow the product life cycle, this includes HACCP certifications for Specialty Crops programs.

Tools such as Agrisoft can capture data and avoid any further stalls in the supply chain process.

The USDA sees the importance of having the ability to support the food supply infrastructure.  This includes freezers, truck logistics, distribution to support the supply chain, and the ability to verify and track the goods throughout its journey. This means that Workflow/Supply Chain tools will be needed more than ever!

The USDA sees the importance of supporting supply chain initiatives to keep our food safe, secure, and verified!

Agrisoft is here to help!

Contact us today and see if you are eligible for funding to help offset a transparent supply chain.