Supply chain management is the concept of the moment, and it should be effective, holistic, and traceable at all times. To ensure this, valid data must be available to all market participants as close as possible to real time. For this purpose, GLOBALG.A.P. has joined forces with F-Trace, GS1 and IFS.
F-Trace, GLOBALG.A.P., GS1 and IFS Agree on Strategic ESG Cooperation
The aim of the collaboration is to leverage holistic supply chain solutions and provide supply chain participants with valid data.
Cologne, Germany, 29 March 2022 – Due to increasing regulatory requirements and consumer demands, transparent supply networks are essential. These developments are expected to accelerate, at the latest starting on January 1, 2023, when Germany’s new Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (LkSG) enters into force. Internationally, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the resulting internationally recognized standards also highlight the need for transparency in global supply networks. All existing and new processes supporting greater transparency require cooperation and a high degree of data integrity.
In an effort to address regulatory and individual company challenges and to offer corresponding solutions, GS1 Germany, together with its subsidiary F-Trace, will work closely with the certification organizations GLOBALG.A.P. and International Featured Standard (IFS). The aim of the strategic cooperation is to ensure transparency along entire supply chains and thus to efficiently fulfill the legislative requirements in the area of Environmental Social Governance (ESG).
Thomas Fell, Lead GS1 Germany, is convinced: "For the multitude of challenges regarding supply chain transparency, collaborative approaches and globally valid standards are the key. This cooperation brings us a big step closer to our goal of achieving the highest level of data quality and data integrity for our community."
Stephan Tromp, Managing Director of IFS, adds: "Collaboration is essential for transparent supply chains. It is critical in meeting the growing demands of consumers and politics in the area of ESG. Together with F-Trace, GLOBALG.A.P. and GS1 Germany, we want to offer viable one-stop solutions for optimal supply chain management."
To this end, the cooperation partners combine, among other things, established standards from the consumer goods industry and GS1 in the community platform "ftrace transparency". This enables them to provide consistently valid data for all participants in their complex supply networks. Especially since GLOBALG.A.P. and IFS have already certified over 250,000 companies worldwide. Within the framework of the cooperation, from now on - by means of internationally recognized standards - the certified market participants can be optimally linked with each other.
Kristian Möller, Managing Director of GLOBALG.A.P., says: “We welcome F-Trace's initiative to offer this highly needed transparency platform. Now we can recommend all our global certificate holders the early opportunity to connect and share their ESG compliance on a community driven IT infrastructure that is truly governed by the sector itself.”
Mark Zeller, Lead F-Trace, summarizes: "Together with the know-how of GLOBALG.A.P., GS1 Germany and IFS, we are able to check all data fed into ftrace transparency as well as certificates used for their authenticity and correctness. In addition, we remain open to further social and ecological minimum standards that are brought to us from the community."
The cooperation enables transparency data to be used in near real time as part of a standardized and decentralized approach. In this way, F-Trace, GLOBALG.A.P., GS1 Germany and IFS meet all supply chain participants’ and market requirements - regardless of industry, company size and IT maturity.
F-Trace – The global language of transparent supply chains.
F-Trace GmbH is a subsidiary of GS1 Germany GmbH. The company offers solutions for a
transparent and secure value chain. The core of the portfolio is the F-Trace platform, a web-based
solution that enables batch-accurate traceability based on static and dynamic data as well as
transparency, security and trust along global supply networks. The scalable F-Trace service is
based on GS1 standards and can be used for all industries, target groups and categories of goods.
www.ftrace.com
GLOBALG.A.P. is a brand of smart farm assurance solutions developed by FoodPLUS
GmbH in Cologne, Germany, with cooperation from producers, retailers, and other stakeholders from
across the food industry. These solutions include a range of standards for safe, socially and
environmentally responsible farming practices. The most widely used GLOBALG.A.P. standard is
Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA), applicable for fruit and vegetables, aquaculture, floriculture,
livestock, and more. This standard also forms the basis for the GGN label: The consumer label for
certified, responsible farming and transparency.
www.globalgap.org
GS1 Germany It started with a simple beep.
In 1974, a barcode was scanned in a supermarket for the first time. This was the beginning
of automated cashiering – and the beginning of GS1's success story. The machine-readable GS1
barcode with the included GTIN is now the universal standard in global trade and is scanned on
products six billion times a day. GS1's standards are the global language for efficient and secure
business processes that span company boundaries and continents. As part of a global network, we
work with our customers and partners to develop market-driven and future-oriented solutions that
directly contribute to their business success. Today, two million companies across more than 20
industries around the world use that language to uniquely identify products, locations and assets
to capture relevant data and share it with business partners within value added networks. GS1 – The
Global Language of Business.
www.gs1-germany.de
IFS – International Featured Standards
With the professional expertise of retailers, manufacturers, certification bodies,
and other experts worldwide, IFS develops globally recognised product quality and safety standards
and development programs. Many retailers and brand owners worldwide choose IFS Certification. An
IFS Certificate shows that the assessed company has established resilient processes to ensure food
and product safety aligns with legal requirements and customer specifications. To complement this,
IFS offers supportive tools and guidance documents to support the work of quality managers. The
overarching goal of IFS is to strive for the best product quality and safety process management
systems so that consumers can trust the products they buy.
www.ifs-certification.com
Press Contacts:
GLOBALG.A.P. c/o FoodPLUS GmbH:
Leonie Fischer
fischer@globalgap.org
GS1:
Stefan Schütz
Corporate Communications
Maarweg 133, 50825 Köln
Phone: 0221 94714-524
E-Mail:
stefan.schuetz@gs1.de