APEDA’s initiatives in Traceability in India
India’s market share in global trade of agriculture and processed food
products in quite insignificant, except few selected products and selected
markets.
APEDA has been undertaking a number of initiatives for market promotion
and quality development for Indian agricultural and processed products
exports in general. Some of the key issues that are constantly faced by
Indian agricultural and processed food products in the penetration of
major markets like European Union, USA, Japan, etc., have been the
following:
Increasing global focus on food safety, especially on residue
monitoring, product standardization, Traceability, etc.,
Regular Crisis due to pesticide residue, aflatoxin, etc., in products
exported from India
Use of the above as non-tariff barriers by developed markets
To assure the importing countries that the quality requirements are being
maintained at every level of supply chain , APEDA took initiatives to set
up traceability mechanism in agricultural products, as this area is gaining
more and more importance due to the growing awareness in the
international market, especially in the major markets of developed
countries. It helps to establish clear linkages between the stake-holders
through ‘farm-to-fork’ monitoring to ensure implementation of
appropriate pre-harvest & post-harvest practices, processing and ensuring
quality & food safety.
APEDA has come out with a number of initiatives in this area and setting
up of information technology enabled monitoring system co-opting all
stakeholders in the supply chain into a single system of reporting has
been major initiative in the recent past.
Key features of Traceability system
Low cost of operations for Stake holders. These systems can be
easily accessed - anywhere, anytime, 24 by 7, by all authorized
stakeholders. All they need to use is a commonly available web
browser through their Internet connection.
Ensuring Compliance to International Standards as No document
can be issued without going through the software and the inbuilt
checks in the system to ensure that the succeeding step can be
carried out only if the preceding steps were successfully complied
with.
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Faster clearance as the system virtually reduces duplication in data
capturing and enables instant reference of previous steps in the
supply chain.
Puts in a credible data/ documentation trail through which APEDA
can trace details of the consignment right up to the plot / farm
/pack house / processing unit level, as applicable, in case of any
rapid alert from the importing country .
Transparency in system: The result of every activity in the system
is recorded and made available for next user in the supply chain,
resulting in complete transparency.
Impact on service response time: Has removed many repetitive
steps, thereby reducing the overall response time required for any
consignment.
Introduction of Traceability Systems in India by APEDA
Grapenet
Grapenet is the solution APEDA developed to a major crisis that hit Indian
grapes sector. India, a major exporter of Grapes to Europe for a number
of years, was suddenly faced with serious threat of nearing a ban, due to
pesticide residues. Consignments were held up at the ports, exporters
faced huge financial losses and India’s position as a quality fresh product
supplier was under threat.
The first task was to put in place, a Government of India regulation,
clearly spelling out the procedures to be followed by all stake holders in
the Grapes Sector, training them to fulfill the requirements of the
regulation, co-opting the monitoring agencies in the Government and
Private Sector and generating the necessary documentation trail for the
importers.
Then it was taken up to IT enable the regulation, compliance and
monitoring. Thus was born, Grapenet, a first of its kind in India, covering
all stakeholders in the grapes export supply chain including Farmers,
exporters, State Government Horticulture/Agriculture departments,
Accredited Laboratories, Agmark, Pack houses, Phyto-sanitary
Certification Departments, National Referral Laboratory (NRL), APEDA,
etc., through a centralized web-based monitoring software.
APEDA is a pioneer in implementing traceability systems in India. For the
first time in India, a traceability system was set up for establishing
consignment to farm traceability, Grapenet for fresh grapes exported from
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India to European Union.
Even when Europe raised concerns in 2010-11 with Indian Grapes
consignments due to the use of chlormequat (Agro Chemical), APEDA was
able to demonstrate the availability of the existing data for instant
verification of tests / inspections carried out on consignments.
Grapenet has been widely recognized and won National E-
governance Award (GOLD) in 2007-08 and eASIA award 2009.
Anarnet
For monitoring the quality assurance being maintained in the supply chain
of Pomegranate export , a similar traceability system has been developed
in line with the Grapenet which has been successfully implemented.
Tracenet (For Organic Products)
For enhancing the credibility of certification system for organic products, a
user-friendly web- based traceability system (Tracenet) has been
implemented by APEDA since June 2010. This is world’s first ever web-
based traceability system developed and implemented at national level for
organic products in line with the National Programme for Organic
Production (NPOP) for which APEDA is the secretariat and the accrediting
body for accreditation of certification bodies. The NPOP defines the
standards and procedures to be followed for organic farming and
certification.
This Tracenet system helps in maintaining authentic information and
related data of all the organic stakeholders under certification ie operators
(producers, processors traders, exporters) and Certification Bodies
operating under the National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP).
Presently, the Tracenet software is being provided for use by the
operators and Certification bodies. APEDA has further initiated the steps
to extend the present traceability system from certification to the
accreditation process.
The Tracenet system covers certification of all horticulture and agriculture
crops including cotton / cotton products, processed foods and wild
harvest. Eventually, it will be used in all livestock products like meat,
poultry, dairy, honey and aquaculture products after the standards are
notified in the near future. APEDA has already initiated steps to extend
the present traceability software from certification to the accreditation
process.
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For efficient monitoring, GPS system is used at the farm level by the
inspecting body. Every harvested lot at the farms up to the level of the
consignment exported can be traced back. Implementation of tracenet
has reduced the documentation work, and has been saving time in the
entire process with efficient control.
The importing countries have appreciated the present certification module
“Tracenet” and it has provided substantial publicity in the credibility of
not only the certification bodies but also of the entire certification system
in the country.
Tracenet helps generate confidence among global buyers and consumers
about the genuineness of Indian Organic Produce and indirectly help the
every stake holder in the supply chain, from exporter to the farmer, get
the desired value for their produce.
It also provides a level playing field for all stake holders in the supply
chain, among farmers, processors, grower groups and certification bodies.
Tracenet is among the first such national initiatives and has been
recognized with the e-ASIA award instituted by UN/AFACT in the
year 2011.
Peanut.net
Higher levels of aflatoxins in groundnuts have been major concern of the
importing countries. Therefore, it was essential to establish adequate
controls to minimize possibilities of presence of the aflatoxins in
groundnuts in excess of prescribed levels.
In order to control and minimize possibilities of presence of the aflatoxins
in groundnuts in excess of prescribed levels a regulation for export of
Peanuts and Peanut products through control of aflatoxins was developed.
Export of groundnuts (peanuts) permitted subject to compulsory
registration of contracts with APEDA, alongwith controlled aflatoxins level
certificate given by the agencies/laboratories nominated by APEDA.
APEDA has nominated Indian Oilseeds and Produce Export Promotion
Council (IOPEPC) to implement the procedures.
Based on the prescribed regulation, APEDA has developed a Peanut.net a
web-based traceability system with the objective of tracing and tracking
of the consignment.
The Stakeholders co-opted for the Peanut.net traceability system are
Processing Units involved in Shelling, grading, value added products
manufacturing, etc., Exporters, IOPEPC and Accredited Laboratories. No
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certificate can be issued by any Laboratory or IOPEPC without going
through this system.
Each consignment of an Exporter is accompanied by a Stuffing Certificate
and Certificate of Export. The stuffing certificate leads to the particular
batch of the Processing Unit or Shelling unit from which the consignment
was created.
This has helped India address Europe's major concerns of prevalence of
aflatoxin in Indian peanuts, thereby helping to avert major restrictions on
exports of groundnut to EU.
Source: Department of Commerce, Government of India.
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