Developing electronic mango traceability in Indonesia

Abstract

ABSTRACTAgricultural production in developing countries needs to meet global traceability requirements to enable food product export. A single case study of a multi-tier supply network provides a detailed description on features of developing traceability of mangoes harvested in Indonesia. This effort involves the integrated, time-limited effort of different professional actors in a project-based network. Developing food product traceability is a boundary-spanning effort; a need to coordinate both actors and the traceability project as an organisational entity. Organising food product traceability importantly involves integration of the different supply network actors as well as the time-limited integration of external actors with technical competence about the traceability system. The case reveals that these technical professionals in addition to organising the project also are decisive in creating an integrated supply network to facilitate the traceability development and system implementation. Findings indicate that developing traceability in developing economies is not much different today than developing this ability in economies commonly labelled as more developed.