Australia-Indonesia Supply Chain Integrity: pilot commercial supply chain

Australian red meat has earnt a competitive advantage in global markets with a reputation as a high quality, premium and safe product. Reports of instances of food fraud and substitution in South East Asia have highlighted the need to strengthen our supply chain integrity to protect Australian brand provenance and to maintain our competitive advantage in export markets. Recognising the importance of increasing confidence in supply chain integrity, Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA), undertook a scoping study on strengthening Indonesian beef supply chain traceability systems. A previous project (https://www.mla.com.au/research-and-development/reports/2020/scoping-study-to-strengthen-indonesian-red-meatsupply-chain-traceability-systems---abridged-summary ) examined the detailed process of export of red meat from Australia to Indonesia including Indonesia’s regulatory and commercial arrangements. MLA’s further research on technological options and supply chain integrity models suggests that several technological tools and products are becoming available. However, there is currently no single traceability system available in the market that can achieve a full end-to-end solution to the meat supply chain. Nevertheless, components of these products could be used to develop an integrated supply chain model that could facilitate end-to-end product tracking technologies. This commercial supply chain pilot project aims to demonstrate the operation of an Australia-Indonesia boxed beef supply chain capable of verifying the integrity (provenance, identity, characteristics, specification) from the processor/exporter to modern retail/food service customers. The project will focus on higher value supply chains (high end retail/hotels) in the first instance and will lay the foundation for using this model for traceability of red meat in Indonesia’s traditional retail sector (wet markets) as well as expansion to other South East Asian market.