The combination of a mango cultivation company and supplier of a Supply Chain Management system certainly isn't an every day one. For Dutchman Bart Beemsterboer, however, it is. Coming from the world of e-learning he and his partners were advised 15 years ago by their accountant to invest in an Australian mango cultivation company. The company is now responsible for around 10 % of the domestic production with seventeen cultivation companies - worth around 60,000 trees. At the same time the company is putting CropTracer in the market, an intelligent traceability platform, with which fruit and vegetable growers register the entire process from cultivation to wholesale.
"We developed CropTracer from our grower background. We know as mango growers what is needed for both grower, packager, transporter and retailer and linked this expertise to our software company Aries Technology. Our retail customers in Australia wanted more information about things like our growing figures, spray records and harvest details. With CropTracer we were able to not only be fully transparent for our customers, but also simplify our company management. In the end we continued developing the software to the supply chain management system it is today," says Bart.
"In CropTracer it is easy to see where the product is grown, what substances (crop protection agents and fertilisers) were used in the cultivation, what transporter carried the product and who packaged it. Storage and transport temperatures are also included in this. It's our vision to make the fruit and vegetable chain more transparent which means we can better safeguard the quality and safety of our fruit and vegetables. Through CropTracer all stakeholders can see where the product is in the chain. This makes it very easy to retroactively see who the grower is, where the product was grown (geographically) and which other parties transported, processed or traded or the product. All specific data connected to time notations, substances used, storage temperature, number plates, etc, are recorded accurately and linked to the barcodes and/or QR codes."
"Whereas in the Netherlands the legislation connected to traceability is still relatively limited to indicating who is the supplier before you in the chain and who is the customer after you, it goes much further in Australia. Yet we are also looking at whether there is a market in the Netherlands for a similar system. For now in the Netherlands the necessary data is supplied upon retailer demand. We took a different approach and supply all traceability data to our chain partners as growers. They are then able to use the data that is interesting to them. The entire system is based on grower convenience. It isn't meant to be labour intensive but we are now able to arrange traceability by item of fruit."
"We work with technology that is comparable to Linkedin or Facebook, which means growers can make direct connections to fellow growers, packaging stations or retailers. Besides the transport module that makes the entire chain insightful to the supermarket or freight forwarder, growers are also able to trade straight from the system. This gives the grower an even more important role in the chain. Blockchain will be the next step we can take," says Bart. "For now the fruit and vegetable sector has had a relatively conservative response. But the fact that we can show the benefits of the system with our cultivation company fosters faith within the market."
"Meanwhile the mango emporium of the company is also going very well," says Bart, who is active as international marketing director of CropTracer. "We have been supplying supermarket chain Woolworths on the domestic market for years and package for third parties with our own packaging station Berry Creek. We have now also taken up the export to destinations such as Singapore and Hong Kong, in which we work together with the Dutch traders Levarht. The next step is to see if there is a market in Europe for our Australian mangoes, but its still in its infancy!"
For more information:
Bart Beemsterboer
CropTracer
T:+31 646212155
bart.beemsterboer@croptracer.com
www.croptracer.com