Global supply chain: Food safety, digitalisation and CFO's

In recent years, the market for fresh produce items has shifted substantially. New chains are created through digitalisation. Nowadays it is possible to go online and sell cherries directly from Washington to consumers in China. However, what is the impact of this development on the chain as a whole, from green house to counter? What does this mean for logistics, marketing, food security, finance and ICT? These are questions that will be addressed by our many speakers at the 2nd EU Forum & Roundtable Discussions.

Consumers have high expectations regarding the quality of food products. Naturally, the products need to be safe. This is why retailers have become increasingly demanding regarding crop information. However, is this basic information sufficient? More and more consumers are looking for the story behind the product. What happened to the product? Where does it come from? The question is: what impact does this have on the way we organise information sharing in the fresh produce chain? And how can we bring this about without completely loosing track of the costs? Writing and documenting information does not necessarily make our products any safer.

The Global Location Number is currently receiving a substantial amount of attention. The United Nations, United Nations Global Compact, is about to provide ALL agricultural businesses in the world with an identification in order to facilitate registration regarding their Sustainable Development Goals. J. Wozniak (International Trade Center, Switserland) will fill you in on the details. In addition, in the so-called ‘input industry’(fertilizers, pesticides and seeds) is working very hard to come up with solutions (such as AGgateway’s SPADE) to facilitate access to product information for the chain.

Moreover, financial departments, more specifically Chief Financial Officers (CFOs), have little knowledge of the effects of the changes in their company that are brought about by the application of information technology. This often starts with the size of the investments required by some innovations. New online business-trajectories lead to new business models, causing the financial model to look completely different. This happens, for example, when moving from sale to rent/service. On the other hand, the financial world itself is also changing dramatically as a result of new developments such as bitcoins and virtual banks.

Nevertheless, financial management is becoming more and more about information exchange with clients and suppliers. Standards are absolutely crucial. In Germany, a new digital invoice has been developed. KL. Förderer from GS1 Germany will explain how you can use of this invoice for both clients and suppliers. In addition, standards such as Global Product Classification (for market analysis), Farm ID and Global Location Number are about to play an important part in FINANCE 4.0. A number of best practices will also be presented.

For those who only wish to participate in the Forum or rather prefer cherry-picking a number of Roundtable sessions, it is possible to register for one day. It is also possible to, for example, register management for the Forum on the first day and an employee for a more detailed workshop session on the second day. This can be indicated on the registration form.

Click here more information and registration, along with the latest program updates.