How Digital Technology Supports Organic Certifications

Digital Technology Supports Organic Certifications

The meaning of “organic” is to work with nature, not against it. Organic elements help in promoting a better world. When it comes to organic food, they come from trusted sources. The most significant use of organic comes into play when we talk about agricultural production, where the use of harmful chemical fertilizers and pesticides is prohibited.

One can also define certification as “an assure qualification earned by someone in order to perform a specific task or a job.”

With certification, the business processes can be improved, and the farmers will be provided with direct solutions as per their needs. It’s also demanded by the public as an identification to verify the genuinity of a consumable item.

Key benefits of organic certification

  • Organic farming is known to be one of the most dynamic sectors of the food industry. The market is proliferating, and with organic certification, one can enter the market in order to improve the image of their brand.

  • Some of the significant parts of the organic certification process are food testing for pests and GMOs. You can explain your consent related to organic certification requirements.

  • With organic certification, it will become much easier for you to meet the increasing demands of the market. You will get a prospect for more environmentally, safer, and ethically responsible food.

How is digital technology enabling organic certifications in today’s time?

Digital technology brings efficiency and innovation in the field of organic certification. Along with these factors, shopper engagement is also a significant factor that must be considered when it comes to using organic food and farming. If we withdraw ourselves from the certification schemes of the British brands, there are still specific challenges that cross our path when we decide to promote the value of our work. There must be an assurance while buying organic foods and drinks, that it must meet the highest requirements of environmental protection and animal welfare.

Retailers and producers have started looking for alternate solutions that can help in demonstrating how their products will meet farming and food standards.

The solution to this challenge is to increase interactivity and preserve integrity. While using digital technologies, you can mark the activities and gather the vital information on the journey of your specific products from farm to store.

As a result, you will notice a propulsive engagement at the point of sale. Shoppers can easily access the required information on their organic products. Digital technology plays the role of strengthening the relevance of standards bodies. And thus, the shopper engagement also increases.

Organic Certifications

Key benefits:

  • There is growth in the customer’s trust. Using digital technology, you can share real-time product information in such a way that the shoppers can understand it conveniently. The physical goods can be linked to their digital journeys using interactive labels.

  • The ability to innovate something new increases with new technology. With digital technology, licensees and certifiers get the opportunity to share and gather that product information that is verified and stored on the blockchain or any other system.

  • With digitization, efficiency increases. Certified shoppers can easily view and store verified claims on the blockchain, especially as blockchain technology comes to the forefront.

Effects of implementing digital technology in organic certification on farmers, sellers, and buyers

Digital solutions have changed the whole way of proceeding towards this direction. In order to meet certification schemes and to satisfy the increasing number of standards, crop procuring companies in the field of agriculture are searching for a tool that can help them to implement track and trace systems. There is a wide range of mobile-enabled tools that link the farm data and farmer to a commodity flow through the related supply chain.

  • With digital technology, it will become much more comfortable for farmers to access the markets.

  • Along with the source tracing of the products bought by the international buyers, the records of farmers confirming certification status can also be accessed.

  • Various well-known and reputed companies are using digital technology (such as mobile apps and other tools) in order to mark their products in the market.

The benefits of certification are well known to everyone. Certification benefits both the seller as well as the buyer. However, getting certification through pen and paperwork is a tedious task. The processes of organic certification may take up to more than 5 years. Moreover, it isn’t straightforward to get producers to commit the resources to satisfy the required standards. Certification audits are considered to be the worst nightmare of farmers. This is the time when digital technology plays its role in the field of organic certification and helps in meeting the compliance to standards.

With digital technology in organic certification, the process becomes flexible. It not only helps in extracting historical farm data for the benefit of the buyer and quality farmers, but it also ensures that the farmers understand the principles of specific schemes entirely. Besides, they are also given suitable training and education on certain practices that are a must in order to become certified.

There are certain situations when farmers face challenges in supporting certification through pen and paper. With digital technology (using specific tools), the agri-businesses can keep track of their own records, and their day-to-day on-farm activities can be tracked and captured. Then the youth groups at its Centres of Excellence collect and analyze the data and create advisory for the farmers. This leads towards a reduction in the cost of audits and certification, thus, increasing efficiency and visibility.

What are certification solutions being offered by SourceTrace?

  • With the digital certification offered by Source Trace, the farmer organization or agribusiness and conveniently create and maintain a digital ICS (Internal Control System). This will help in the compliance and the certification process as well.

  • The geo-referencing of the farms and the area of the farm can be digitally calculated in order to satisfy the new certification standards.

  • The digital certification offered by Source Trace helps in keeping the track of non-conformities, follow-up actions, and related corrective action plans.

SourceTrace's software solutions have been deployed across 37 countries and 4 continents already. We are on a mission to make agriculture and food systems more sustainable. Get in touch and we will extend our expertise and commitment to you.


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About SourceTrace

SourceTrace is a SaaS (Software As A Service) company that focuses on sustainable agriculture and empowerment of farmers.

SourceTrace's advanced technology platform DATAGREEN provides comprehensive solutions to manage all aspects of the agricultural value chain.

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