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Traceability was originally used as a technical term in measurement science. The original meaning of traceability was the accuracy of instruments. However, recently, especially after the outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), traceability attracts more attention in the field of food safety. In this context, "traceability", so-called farm to table means the ability to trace and follow a food or feed through all stages of production, processing and distribution.
The basic idea of traceability is usually constructed by those modules; i) identification of a certain amount of commodities with a uniform production process (formulation of a lot), ii) recording the history of cultivation, processing or distribution of the commodity in respective lots, iii) preserving the records and disclosure in response to requests from consumers or others, iv) external audit to assure the reliance of the system. Trials to establish traceability progressed especially in Europe. After the risk of BSE infection to human beings was thought to be undeniable in 1996, the European Union (EU) introduced traceability of beef by regulation, which aims at the identification of bovine animals and labeling of beef (EC, 1997). To extend traceability to the whole food complex in the region, the EU adopted a regulation obliging the traceability of any processed and unprocessed food and any feed at all stages of production, processing and distribution in 2002 (EC, 2003). The regulation will be enforced from 1 January 2005.
Traceability is a useful tool especially in order to secure food safety by increasing transparency of its supply chain. One of the regulatory trends of food safety in developed countries is export of regulatory responsibility and burden. To assure compliance for imported products, importing countries require exporting countries to have in place a regulatory structure (a competent authority). This has resulted in some exporting of regulatory responsibility and burden to other countries as the price of entry into developed country markets (Caswell, 2003).
In general, the necessary cost for establishing traceability should be borne by producers or traders, not by consumers. This means it is difficult for farmers to shift the cost onto their commodity price. Indeed, farmers may attract reliance to their products from consumers through traceability, which will favor the expansion of demand. However, it may create another challenge for resource poor farmers, especially if they cannot bear the additional cost. Since the profitability of CGPRT crops is relatively low compared to other high value commodities such as beef or fruit, the condition may be more severe for CGPRT crop farmers.
It is worth noting that some CGPRT crop farmers and processors struggle to take advantage of traceability to improve their crop quality. The Brewers Association of Japan, consisting of five major beer brewer firms in the state, launched a recording system of cultivation history of domestic barley production. This trial makes up part of a traceability system, which has been carried on by the Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives. About 17,000 contract farms in major barley production areas participate in the project. They record their cultivation history in fields such as amounts and substances of fertilizer or chemical application, then, submit reports to the Brewers Association through agricultural cooperatives in respective regions. The agricultural cooperatives provide the results of their chemical analyzes of protein content in crops, as it deeply affects the fermentation process of beer. On the other hand, the Brewers Association proposes individual farms' countermeasures for improving the quality of their products, after synthesis and analysis of the reports from the contract farms. The project aims to improve the quality of domestic barley production as well as establishing traceability. Nearly 800 thousand tons of barley is consumed annually by the beer industry in Japan, however, domestic barley is less competitive in price than imported barley (NIKKEI, 2003).
Traceability will increase in importance and be adopted in more countries with increasing numbers of commodities under the recent trend of consciousness of food safety. Further discussion will be necessary on how farmers benefit from traceability rather than that they just owe the necessary cost for the establishment and maintenance of the system.
Rewrite by Tomohide Sugino, Project Leader, AGRIDIV Project, CGPRT Centre
(References available upon request) |
