Andrew Grant has co-founded several AgTech startups, including smart tracking software solution Trust Provenance, from his base in Adelaide, South Australia.

The platform integrates data points along the supply chain from paddock to plate, enabling heightened integrity across food safety, traceability, biosecurity, quality and provenance.

Trust Provenance works by capturing touchpoints along a product’s journey in real-time, integrating these onto one platform and securing the data points in the blockchain.

The data is then presented in a digital format allowing producers, packers, processers, retailers, quality inspectors and consumers to know the true journey of a product.

“We can provide this new level of integrity on data which has a mixture of uses, including product safety, quality optimisation, identifying inefficiency in your supply chain, and telling the true story about provenance,” said Mr Grant.

“Remember the saga of needles in strawberries and deaths caused from leafy greens in the US?

“It took weeks and months to track down the source, cost the industry many millions and you instantly erode brand value and consumer trust. These issues can be removed by new traceability platforms like ours.”

Citrus Australia is piloting Trust Provenance for fruit grown in Victoria’s Sunraysia region to back up the provenance story and prevent counterfeiting.

It has also engaged with leading mango producer Manbulloo in Queensland and is currently lining up a new project with leading South Australian producers and food manufacturers.

Mr Grant says he sees the potential for traceability across the state’s grain, horticulture, red meat, wool and seafood industries – many of which are major employers in regional areas.

“It will allow us to sell more product into more markets with better margins, create more brand value and underpin further investment and regional employment.”

Mr Grant warns the buzzwords ‘clean and green’ can no longer be thrown around without authenticity when marketing food and wine, particularly to export markets.

Instead, he says, we must adopt smart traceability systems to improve transparency and increase reassurance around provenance.

“The days of ‘hand on heart, I guarantee my produce is clean, green, safe and of this quality’ are limited.

“I’m an avid believer that secure traceability will be part of the ‘ticket to play’. If you’re not doing it, they (leading domestic retailers and export markets) won’t have your product because customers are asking for it”.

Mr Grant is also a member of the state’s AgTech Advisory Group, which is helping create the state’s AgTech Adoption Strategy, a draft of which was recently released.