TRACEABILITY AND REPRESENTATION

Participating companies currently confirmed to serve on the steering committee include:
• Nine retail buyers: Food Lion, H-E-B, W. Newell & Co. (Supervalu), The Kroger Co., Loblaws, Safeway Stores, Inc., Schnuck Markets, Inc., Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Wegmans Food Markets;
• Seven foodservice buyers: Amerifresh, Applebee’s International, Markon Cooperative, Inc., McDonald’s, Pro*Act, Sysco Corporation, U.S. Foodservice;
• 17 produce suppliers: AEPQ (Quebec Apple Packers), B.C. Tree Fruits Limited, Ballantine Produce Co., Inc., C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc., Dole Food Company, Inc., Domex Superfresh Growers, Driscoll’s, Duda Farm Fresh Foods, Inc., Fresh Express, Inc., Fresh Innovations, LLC., Frontera Produce, Ltd., Naturipe Farms, LLC., The Oppenheimer Group, Pandol Brothers, Inc., Ready Pac Produce, River Ranch Fresh Foods, LLC., and Tanimura & Antle.

The first meeting of the steering committee was held Jan. 9, 2008, in Atlanta, Georgia. The committee reached agreement on four key elements for implementing industry-wide traceability standards. 

Second, it was agreed that a formal industry timeline for adoption of standards is needed. Steering committee participants agreed to begin evaluating what might be required to implement GS1 standards within their own operations, and will report back at the next committee meeting on recommended implementation timelines.

Third, the committee agreed to discuss ways in which companies could best show their support and commitment to adoption. 

“Implementation is sure to begin gaining momentum across the industry when both buying and selling companies start signaling their support for the business process changes that will be necessary,” Green said. “When buyers state their commitment for traceability standards, and suppliers begin to make similar commitments, then things will really change.”

Fourth, the group agreed that traceability standards should be adopted at the case level initially, as the backbone of supply chain traceability. However, the committee encourages companies to move toward item-level coding as feasible, as many produce products are now packaged for the consumer, thereby offering a viable option for providing traceability to the item level. 

The steering committee will meet again this month to form subcommittees that will address specific elements, such as setting timelines for adoption.

In addition, all three associations will post on their websites the committee’s minutes as well as presentations and other guides and resources being used as part of this initiative, for their members’ access and input. 

“Traceability is a critical issue to the produce industry,” Green said. “We want to make sure that all members of the three associations are engaged in this important process, so we’ll be seeking their input and direction relative to implementation decisions for produce traceability.” So grab the tablets; the industry leadership went up the mountain and came back with four “key elements” for the trade. Let us look at the elements and what they really mean.

1. The standard will be GS1.
Agreement on this means that this is not going to be an initiative looking to develop a new standard. This is crucial as development of a new standard would have probably entailed a decade of work. Now it can happen with some speed.

2. A timeline is required.
This means they actually want this to happen. So a date certain will be set.

3. They are going to discuss how companies can show support.
This is an acknowledgement that the whole thing will be worthless if this is perceived as something the associations think their members “should” do. The only thing that will make it real is if buyers require suppliers to move into compliance along with the aforementioned timeline and leading suppliers acknowledge they will. Then traceability will be an industry standard and almost everyone will fall into place.

One gets the sense that despite these issues having percolated for some time, committee members really needed to go back to their organizations to get a sense for what kind of timeline might be feasible and what kinds of commitments their organizations were prepared to make.

The whole effort is a rare opportunity to solve an important industry problem in the most efficient manner possible. Everyone should seize the chance. The industry owes a vote of thanks to those working so hard on this steering committee. Their work is not yet done, but the start is an auspicious one.