Blue Pacific Flavors, in partnership with Natural Extracts Industries (NEI), has implemented traceable, sustainable vanilla production through its Kilimanjaro vanilla digital traceability system (DTS) implemented in Tanzania, and underway in Uganda.
“Our overarching goal is to provide support and formalise the local value chain, which in turn supports better vanilla quality and availability,” said Juan Guardado, MD for NEI. “We have been able to achieve complete end-to-end visibility throughout the supply chain through a powerful combination of well-designed technology and rigorous field operations handled by a dedicated team of committed individuals.”
The program and its initiatives help support over 5,700 farming households and approximately 28,500 individuals, and is being rolled out in 2 regions of Uganda. The system enables farmers who grow vanilla to improve their livelihoods while putting money back into the local economy, Blue Pacific claims.
The DTS framework reportedly enables end-to-end accountability, helping maintain actionable visibility from the field to curing, extraction, export, and even through to food and beverage manufacturers.
The systems are designed to help streamline processes and allow tracking, monitoring, management and alerts across activities and processes, including: changes in farm productivity, crop yields and quality, domestic and export logistics, farm earnings, food safety and quality, integrity of the chain of custody, and pests, diseases and water stress.
The DTS creates unique identifiers for farmers, transactions, batches and lots, which allows for observation throughout the process. It enables integration with multiple services, including group finance, inventory and quality assurance, and provides digital records that provide agronomists with insights on crop and farming activities over time.
“A production environment that not only monitors, but integrates, the processes of farming, curing and extraction, helps us leverage full visibility across production and throughout the supply chain,” said Donald Wilkes, President and CEO of Blue Pacific Flavors. “These efforts enable us to mitigate price and supply fluctuations, increase quality, reduce costs, and protect the livelihoods of our small holder farms.”
