This new project will make product traceability and price transparency real and efficient.
Australian Dairy Farmers (ADF) has secured a federal grant of $814,000 to improve price transparency, product traceability and efficiency across the dairy supply chain.
With the grant, ADF will produce a framework for the dairy industry that lays out what technology and systems need to be deployed to track and trace produce and price through the supply chain.
“We thank the Federal Government for this grant. It’s an opportunity to not just improve traceability, but also build transparency and trust within the dairy industry,” says ADF CEO David Inall. “This is a significant industry reform initiative. It ensures that a reform of the supply chain will continue under the leadership of ADF.
“As part of the project, we will be conducting an audit of existing traceability systems and processes, as well as mapping the critical price and financial transactions as product moves through the supply chain. This will help us identify the gaps and barriers in the industry’s current traceability practices based on the Australian Dairy Traceability Guideline released in September 2021.
“We’ll then use this information to develop a technology and systems roadmap to indicate the most efficient and integrated approach to track and trace product and price through the supply chain. This positions us to deploy real time price and product monitoring tools and capture data more effectively.
“The guidelines set out a common language for traceability. Now we’re using that language to determine which technology and systems will lead to more effective and transparent tracking across the supply chain.”
The grant is part of the Australian Government’s Improving Market Transparency in Perishable Agricultural Goods Industries Program that aims to tackle bargaining power imbalances in these industries by improving market and price transparency. This project has been developed in collaboration with the Australian Dairy Products Federation and Dairy Australia.
The grant program is a response to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) inquiry into Perishable Agricultural Goods. This identified a range of harmful practices associated with bargaining power imbalances and market failures with seven categories of misconduct reported mainly relating to supermarket behaviour.
To help resolve these problems the ACCC recommended amendments to the Competition and Consumer Act, making the Food and Grocery Code mandatory and supporting industry initiatives to increase price transparency across the supply chain.
“This new project will make product traceability and price transparency real and efficient. This is not only delivers on one of the ACCC’s recommendations it will benefit all stakeholders in the dairy supply chain,” says Mr Inall.
“Securing these grants are further steps towards delivering on the Australian Dairy Plan’s commitment to restore trust and transparency across the dairy supply chain.”
-ADF