GS1 standards for fruit and vegetables in Europe

How can the data and information exchange be standardized to make the fruit and vegetable industry more competitive? Numerous companies are working on this topic within the framework of the international organization GS1.

Representatives of the European working group, dedicated to the design and implementation of global standards for the supply chain, met in the headquarters of SanLucar in Valencia. This premium brand for fruit and vegetables is a member of GS1 and one of the few companies in the industry that has an internal department working on data standardization.

Not Deutschland, not Germany – but DE
During the two-day meeting, the participants discussed the importance of a printed guide explaining how to label fruit and vegetables and how to communicate among partners correctly – on the basis of consistent standards. Especially in international business, communication problems and collisions with legal regulations in the respective countries occur repeatedly. Even with the indication of origin there can be difficulties: Not Deutschland, not Germany – DE is the only correct ISO code on a fruit label in the digital exchange to clearly designate where the product comes from.

SanLucar started to work on the standardization three years ago, says Christoph Waltert, Commercial Planning Director at SanLucar. Since then, there have been significantly fewer errors in orders, deliveries or invoicing - and we save so much money. Waltert says that he can only encourage other companies to implement the GS1 guide for standardization. "The standardization of data is paying off."

For more information:
Sonia Gabarda
SanLucar Fruit
sonia.gabarda@sanlucar.com
Tel. +34 96142 40 40 extension 2410