Traceability and the Spice Supply Chain: A Complex Challenge

Transparency is a crucial indicator of quality in the food industry, and it's a top priority for today's consumers. A study by Nielsen reveals that two-thirds of consumers desire transparency in the food they purchase. This demand extends beyond basic information like allergens and certifications to include values-based details such as animal welfare, fair trade practices, and labor conditions.

At the heart of this transparency is traceability. Traceability is the ability to track products or services throughout their entire lifecycle, from production to consumption. Consumers want to understand where their food originates, ensuring it aligns with their values and is safe for consumption. End-to-end traceability is the key to building trust and ensuring full transparency.

So, what makes implementing traceability so difficult, particularly in the spice industry? In Indonesia, spices are primarily cultivated by smallholder farmers, typically owning just 0.5 to 2 hectares of land. Most spice suppliers gather products through a complex web of intermediaries, such as individual farmers to small collectors and then to brokers, before reaching buyers. This extended supply chain creates more opportunities for food fraud, such as adulteration or mislabeling.

For companies seeking to purchase large volumes of certified spices, collaborating with thousands of individual farmers is a significant logistical challenge. Not many spice players are willing to spend effort on this. But at ORIGINE, we do.

ORIGINE simplifies the supply chain by engaging directly with farmers and processing our spices in our own facilities before delivering products to our B2B buyers. We are committed to investing in a high level of traceability, a commitment made possible by our extensive and established network.

ORIGINE’s Traceability App: A Step Towards Innovation in Spice Traceability

To bridge the gap in spice traceability, ORIGINE developed an app internally. By leveraging on our deep knowledge of local conditions and farming spices, we knew that we could build something more customised than any existing app services.

We believe that our app system would definitely pay off in the long term since we are committed to continue sourcing the best quality certified spices. The cost of using third party services would have been higher over time, especially given the complicated nature of spice sourcing.

We also recruited a large team of Field Officers to act as our representatives on the ground. When a farmer wants to work with us, our Field Officers first register them and their land(s), collecting comprehensive baseline data. They also conduct annual field visits to ensure ongoing compliance with our internal standards and provide personalized training on Good Agricultural Practices.

Our Field Officers use the app to log all data collected from each farmer. The app’s key functions include:

1. Farmer Registration and Initial Baseline Assessment. Comprehensive data collection, including:
   • Farmer data
   • Land data
   • Crop data
   • Chemical use data (if any)
   • Land history
   • Socio-Economic data
   • Workforce information
2. Field Inspections. Ensuring field conditions consistently meet our internal standards. This process supports our goal of achieving various certifications for the lands, such as Organic, UEBT-RA, For Life, Fair For Life, Grown For Good, and Naturland.
3. Purchases. All transactions are made and recorded through our app and integrated directly with our ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system to ensure full traceability from farmers to our customers.

Benefits of Farm-to-Shelf Traceability with ORIGINE

Choosing ORIGINE means gaining access to a high level of traceability, allowing you to track your product's entire journey from the farm to your shelf. Here are the advantages you‘ll receive:

• Guaranteed Quality and Purity: The vulnerable nature of traditional spice supply chains creates opportunities for food fraud, including adulteration. By choosing a product with a transparent journey facilitated by our innovative traceability app, you are guaranteed exceptional quality and purity.
• Ethical Sourcing: Our traceability app provides data to confirm that our spices do not originate from plantations linked to deforestation or located within protected forest areas.
• Enhanced Food Safety: We can trace back all product lots, swiftly identifying and addressing any potential contamination points within the supply chain. Furthermore, our system enables us to segregate organic from conventional spices, from the moment of purchase through to sale.
• Connection to Origin: Our app empowers consumers with the transparency they seek, offering a breakthrough in knowing exactly where their spices come from and how they were produced.

Final Take: Traceability is the Only Way Forward

Traceability has created a challenge toward transparency in the spice industry for a long time. The intricate network of multiple intermediaries and small-scale farmers made it exceptionally difficult for suppliers to pinpoint every single origin. ORIGINE has effectively bypassed these middlemen, cultivating a vast and direct network of farmers, and leveraging our advanced traceability app and dedicated Field Officers to bridge this critical gap.

Our app continuously evolves, with major upgrades already in the pipeline to further enhance support for both Field Officers and farmers. In the near future, we envision providing direct app access to farmers, enabling them to update their own data and empowering our supply chain even more.

It’s time to choose safe, traceable, sustainably-sourced spices. It's time to choose ORIGINE.

FAQs

Why is traceability an issue in the spice supply chain?

In most cases, spices are supplied from various intermediaries by brokers. This leads to a long and convoluted supply chain that makes traceability challenging to implement from farm to table.

How does the supply chain in ORIGINE differ from others?

ORIGINE cuts through the intermediaries and goes straight to our partner farmers. Our Field Officers provide individual training and support, which significantly enhances the traceability of our spices compared to conventional methods.

How does the ORIGINE traceability app work?

The process begins with registering the farmer and their land, followed by collecting comprehensive data for an initial baseline assessment. Our Field Officers then conduct continuous inspections, updating statuses based on actual field conditions. The app also meticulously monitors all transactions, ensuring full traceability from the farmers to our consumers.

What are the impacts of ORIGINE’s traceability app?

ORIGINE’s traceability app allows for guaranteed quality and purity, assures ethical sourcing and food safety, and gives you connection to origin, allowing you to know where your spices come from.