The Australian Agricultural Traceability Alliance (Alliance) is a coalition of partners, who have a deep interest in enhancing national agricultural traceability. The Alliance is working to accelerate Australia’s journey in exceeding $100 billion of farmgate output by 2030 and beyond.
The Alliance aims to ensure strong engagement across industry, governments and broader supply chain stakeholders, and provide the right and successful foundations for traceability initiatives.
They will also help translate policy into practice across the entire agricultural supply chain.
National Agricultural Traceability Strategy 2023 to 2033 and Implementation Plan
The National Agricultural Traceability Strategy 2023 to 2033 (the strategy) was released on 13 July 2023 by Agricultural Ministers. It provides the vision, mission, objectives and identified priority areas for action to support a coordinated, enduring approach to enhancing agricultural traceability across the Alliance and its supply chains.
The 10-year strategy was co-designed through the National Traceability Summit and Working Group Sessions, industry design group sessions, the national Alliance Forum and Have Your Say surveys, and ad hoc discussions with Alliance partners.
The Alliance now has its first 5-year implementation plan for the strategy – released by Assistant Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Senator the Hon Anthony Chisholm, on 13 November 2024, the implementation plan aims to:
- determine high-level key activities for this timeframe
- identify leads and collaborators
- identify key performance indicators for monitoring and reporting
- include a benefits framework to assess outcomes from implementing the strategy.
The implementation plan showcases contributions and activities planned or underway being led by industry, governments and other supply chain stakeholders. It provides guidance to organisations and sectors on how they can contribute to enhancement activities and overall progress on national agricultural traceability through their business or sector-specific plans and investment cycles.
Visit National Traceability to read the strategy and implementation plan.
Governance framework
The Australian Agricultural Traceability Governance Group (AATGG) was established in 2023 and is a high-level standing advisory group that provides guidance on priorities and action for Australia’s agricultural traceability systems, including development of the first National Agricultural Traceability Strategy and its implementation plan. The AATGG reflects a breadth of highly experienced senior individuals across industry, governments and the broader supply chain to ensure shared implementation for improvements to Australia’s agricultural traceability systems.
The AATGG has established the Australian Agricultural Traceability Strategic Reference Group (SRG) and 3 technical working groups to provide technical, operational, and strategic advice to the AATGG and other technical working groups, where required.
Australian Agricultural Traceability Alliance Forum
The Alliance met on 19 October 2022 to refine the first 10-year National Agricultural Traceability Strategy. The Forum also heard about insights to inform the development of the strategy’s first 5-year implementation plan.
The Forum was held over 1 day with more than 240 Alliance members in attendance. It involved keynote speakers and a panel discussion in the morning. This was followed by an afternoon to focus on interactive deep dive sessions divided into the 4 pressing challenges (data, regulation, value creation and distribution, and enduring partnerships and continuous improvement), which we face in uplifting our national agricultural traceability systems.
Australian Agricultural Traceability Hub
The department is committed to connecting industry groups, research bodies, state and territory governments and other organisations to collaboratively develop and drive successful agricultural traceability initiatives.
In April 2022, we held the first National Traceability Summit, extending the 2021 discussion about the future of Australia’s agriculture traceability.
The National Traceability Summit will be an engagement opportunity of many to ensure all partners’ voices are heard and turned into traceability action.
The inaugural National Traceability Summit was held over 4 half-days on 7-8 and 11–12 April 2022.
Producers, exporters, researchers, government, and industry took stock of the agricultural traceability work already underway and considered the priorities for the pathway forward to becoming a world-class leader in traceability.
Summit launch
The interactive webinar Summit, moderated by ABC Landline’s anchor, Pip Courtney, launched on 7 April 2022. It featured keynote speakers from industry and government and all stages of the agricultural trade supply chain.
Summit workshop outputs
Participants at the April 2022 National Traceability Summit focussed originally on 3 pressing challenges including:
- Data
- Value creation and distribution
- Regulation
A fourth pressing challenge focussing on enduring partnerships and continuous improvement was identified during subsequent processes.
Key agricultural traceability focus areas
Consumers want to know more about the food they eat and how it’s produced.
We have an opportunity to increase trust and transparency by redesigning how data are collected across the supply chain.
The demand for improved traceability, and the opportunity it creates, is challenging long-held government and industry arrangements for data and information sharing.
It is critical that industry and governments increase collaboration and sharing of traceability information to enable a whole-of-government ‘tell us once’ approach.
Effective and efficient management of data across supply chains is key to delivering wider benefits.
Our farmers and industries will save time and money from information sharing. It will ensure modernised farm management practices are supported alongside the realisation of significant deregulatory benefits.
By creating a transparent traceability ecosystem, we can showcase the premium value of our products to countries we want to do business with.
By demonstrating provenance and credentials like sustainability and organics, we can unlock between $400 million and $1 billion of projected additional value across industries.
There is an increasing importance being placed on provenance and credentials from consumers, who are willing to pay for traceability.
For example, research indicates certified ‘grass-fed beef’ could gain an additional $1 per kilogram in the US market.
Improving our traceability systems will ensure those premium prices in our export markets can be distributed back through the supply chain all the way to the farmgate.
Improved traceability can also unlock other benefits. If we synchronise our traceability frameworks and regulatory technology, we can streamline administration and paper processes. In combination, this can lead to a projected saving of $225 to $350 million per year for businesses.
Through these savings and traceability systems, businesses can also better invest in business growth domestically, and in turn increase their international exports reach.
By streamlining traceability regulations, we have the potential to deliver an industry-wide economic projected benefit of $108 million to $197 million a year.
This can be achieved through greater alignment, reduced duplication, and more efficient compliance mechanisms.
In agricultural production trade, we must navigate and meet multiple regulatory and compliance obligations whether they are retail, consumers, importing markets or government regulation.
Time and costs could be saved through better alignment of needs and improved information sharing, as well as flexible documentation and audit requirements.
We know having a set of consistent and easy to comply with traceability obligations between commercial operators will give producers the confidence to invest in their own systems.
By helping producers to generate, capture and transmit robust and easily transferable traceability information, exporters and regulators can meet a broader range of importing countries requirements and pivot quickly in response to trade restrictions.
This pressing challenge is fundamental in supporting the other 3 pressing challenges. Ownership of improvements is created through enduring and motivated partnerships across the whole agricultural traceability ecosystem.
Australian Agricultural Traceability Alliance
Watch the Traceability Voices of Industry 2021 video to hear industry’s views on what national traceability could look like and the challenges faced by the agriculture industry.
Video transcript - National Traceability Summit – Voices of Industry (DOCX 61KB)