Goal
We are embedding and integrating digitisation and automation of export compliance into Australia's supply chain systems.
This will reduce the cost of meeting trade requirements and give regulatory processes the ability to scale and pivot.
Outcome
Digitisation and automation of export compliance will:
- lower export barriers and significantly reduce costs
- mitigate scalability concerns, facilitating expansion of exports
- fully utilise tracing data to support export compliance
- provide the necessary agility to shift to different export markets
- enable producers to adapt when necessary to changing compliance requirements
- maintain confidence in Australian compliance systems.
The challenge
The food supply chain is a complex multi-national operation, with numerous levels of regulation and protocols spanning multiple countries in order to guarantee food quality and safety.
The high standards of Australian export regulation are critical for maintaining and building trust in our food. However, the current paper-based system of handling registrations, sign-offs and compliance approvals is costly, highly complex and does not easily scale.
Regulation and compliance costs for Australian agrifood exporters are among the highest in the world; between 0.4 and 0.8 per cent of the farm-gate value of production. Additionally, there are traceability gaps in current systems.
Our solution
We've developed a multi-pronged approach to digitisation and automation of export compliance. Our aim is to map compliance workflows, prioritise areas of highest return from investment, and deploy fit- for-purpose technologies.
The result will be integrated digitised regulations and protocols with digitised workflows and automated compliance checking tools, while linking different parties along the supply chain.
Integrated data can then be used to produce a consolidated data package, enabling automated certification, and building international trust through automation and provability of compliance.
Key activities and progress
Australian Agricultural Data Exchange
As a founding partner, we are helping create a shared digital infrastructure for Australia’s agricultural and food industry. It will be a national data library and channel for sharing data between industry, regulators and exporters. It aims to drive cost-efficiencies in digitisation.
Continuous assurance of food safety
Food safety audits are a mandatory precondition for food trade in Australia and are currently paper-based and undertaken in person. This is slow and expensive.
To reduce this regulatory burden, we are designing an analytical platform to capture real-time stream data for food processing plants to automate the compliance process and provide continuous assurances.
New sensors for pest detection
We are developing new sensors to automate compliance for a range of export requirements. For example, pest and disease remain a major barrier for domestic and international trade.
Early-stage infestations in fruit, such as fruit flies, are inspected manually which is timely and expensive. We are adapting optical scanning technologies to automate early detection of pests.
Digitised regulations
To bring costs down and streamline processes for regulatory compliance, we are integrating digitised regulations and protocols with digitised workflows and automated compliance checking tools.
Our focus is to develop technologies that integrate with existing supply-chain systems to seamlessly help farmers and processors embed regulatory changes and the associated compliance requirements for export.