DUBLIN, CA - iTradeNetwork, one of the leading global providers of supply chain software for the food and beverage industry, has been conducting traceability pilot programs with retailers globally and domestically for a while now. In fact, the solutions provider recently stated that the results of the yearlong pilot program are not only in, but favorable—the company revealed that the program helped drive up profits by an average of 55 percent.
“From improving supply chain efficiencies and ensuring food safety to helping family farms, our traceability suite provides so many benefits to buyers, suppliers, and consumers alike,” said Rhonda Bassett-Spiers, CEO of iTradeNetwork. “It tracks commodities from field to fork, automates and accelerates receiving, improves shelf life, simplifies substitutions, and ultimately gives participants complete transparency into every step of a product’s journey.”
According to the press release, data from a traceability pilot with a major industry buyer shows that iTrade Transit customers increased their trading volumes on average by 55 percent within 12 months—with some suppliers increasing volume by as much as 300 percent.
The iTrade data analytics team also studied the incremental value for new growers joining the same global buyer’s supplier base and utilizing Transit. A sample of just four new growers added a combined $10 million in revenue over the same period.
“Increased traceability was mandated by our buyer and met with a natural degree of hesitancy. We were concerned about added hardware costs and increased workload, but iTrade made it easy for us to comply quickly. We initially considered this a box-ticking exercise, but in fact, it has improved our supplier/buyer relationship and provided us with a trackable food safety halo. Traceability has become more than simply a compliance need, it’s a differentiator that helps us grow our business,” commented David Bell, CMO Houweling’s Group, one of the companies that participated in the program.
iTrade built the Transit solution from the ground up and integrated it into the iTrade platform in response to increasing regulatory, consumer, and industry pressure for food safety. The user interface is suitable for growers of all sizes while also providing convenient features such as mobile capabilities to capture traceability data at the source and transmit PTI Palletized Advanced Ship Notices from anywhere in the world. The tool also empowers suppliers to offer buyers critical information as early as possible in a product’s journey through the supply chain, enhancing freshness, improving shelf readiness, and allowing buyers to maximize inventory and extend shelf life.
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