Resources and support

GS1 Australia

GS1 standards are used in 100 countries globally, including Australia. Global standards help businesses speak the same language and align information across industries.

GS1 standards help identify locations and products along the supply chain from farm to consumer.

Standards provide a globally recognised, unique identification number that includes:

• Business location e.g., GLN: Global Location Number
• Product identification e.g., GTIN: Global Trade Item Number
• Transit information e.g., SSCC: Serial Shipping Container Code

Products can be physically identified using a data carrier such as a barcode or QR code.

The World Trade Organization Standards Toolkit for Cross-border Paperless Trade nominates GS1 identifiers as the traceability standards of choice.

More information: visit the GS1 website.

CSIRO Trusted Agrifood Exports Program

The Trusted Agrifood Exports program supports farmers and will help boost the economy. The goal is to increase global export earnings of Australian grown food by $10 billion by 2030.

The program is aiming for:

• a globally competitive export sector based on trusted ‘brand Australia’
• flexibility and diversity in export markets
• greater premiums for Australia’s quality and trusted food
• increased employment and opportunities in Australian agritech.

More information: visit the Trusted Agrifood Exports section of the CSIRO website.

AgriFood Data Exchange project

The Australian AgriFood Data Exchange project is an initiative to develop a platform for businesses in the agrifood space to share, reuse and merge data from a range of systems. The platform will operate in a secure environment on a permissions basis

The vision is to create an interconnected data highway for Australia’s AgriFood value chain. And seeks to provide a digital platform that enables:

• The permissioned exchange of data between AgriFood industry participants to encourage the sharing of data and value creation.
• Timely access to information that supports decision making for the AgriFood value chain.
• Release of management capacity and return of valuable time.
• Enable the agrifood tech industry to publish and ingest wider data sources, access more customer data, and leverage the common data sharing infrastructure and marketplace.
• Standardisation and consistency of industry data assets.
• Flexibility to react faster for market access.
• The capacity to adapt and incorporate new use cases for data exchange that deliver value and support resilience of AgriFood value chain participants.
• Increased transparency of AgriFood industry data to support multiple use cases (e.g., regulatory compliance, collaboration between public & private data sets).
• A mechanism to connect disparate data sources.

More information: visit the Australian AgriFood Data Exchange website.

Deakin University’s Implementing Food Traceability program

The Implementing Food Traceability Program provides guidance and support to achieve end-to-end traceability of food products.

The work is beneficial for industry to:

• deliver assurance to consumers of their produce and
• reduce the time and cost to achieve a line of sight along the product’s journey.

A series of guides have been developed through the program to help industries take a consistent approach to traceability. The program is an initiative of Deakin University’s Food Traceability Lab and industry partners.

More information: visit the Implementing Food Traceability website.

National Freight Data Hub

The National Freight Data Hub is a way for industry and government to share and use freight data.

The National Freight and Supply Chain Strategy highlighted the need for a national approach to data consistency across jurisdictions and along supply chains. The Freight Data Standards project is working to deliver better data exchange to improve decision making and productivity.

More information: visit the National Freight Data Hub website.

RMIT University’s Blockchain Innovation Hub

The Blockchain Innovation Hub is the world’s first research centre on the social science of blockchain. The research incorporating economics, sociology, public policy and political economy to understand its global evolution. Blockchains can be used for capturing and sharing information that enables traceability.

More information: visit the Blockchain Innovation Hub.

National traceability

The Australian Government is investing $68.4 million into Australia’s agricultural traceability systems. This investment builds upon the already strong traceability frameworks in place, especially around food safety, provenance and biosecurity.

Working with industry and states and territories, the department supports the development of a national approach to improve traceability in agricultural supply chains.

Traceability approaches and systems will clearly continue to show consumers and countries we export to, that our products are safe, clean, and sustainable from paddock to plate, which will drive our access to premium overseas markets.

More information: visit the Australian Government website.