The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has released a public consultation paper seeking feedback on the first Data Interoperability Framework.
Data interoperability means you can exchange data between different systems and organisations efficiently.
The draft framework was created as part of a $5 million grant awarded to Food Agility CRC to test data-enabled traceability concepts and facilitate industry and government alignment on data standards.
The department is seeking feedback on the draft to verify it’s recommended approaches and gain insight on potential barriers or areas for improvement prior to introduction.
Assistant Secretary of Agricultural Traceability, Kieran Macdonell said the release of the public consultation paper was a milestone for industry and government collaboration on data standards, encouraging and empowering farmers to securely capture, reuse and share data.
“The Data Interoperability Framework will help to increase the adoption of data-enabled traceability, bringing transparency and rigor to reduce the risk of greenwashing and increase cross commodity uptake of enhanced traceability systems,” Mr Macdonell said.
“It will also streamline commercial and government regulatory systems to improve data accuracy and reduce the time, effort, and cost of industry compliance.
“Having a transparent, traceable supply chain means consumers in overseas markets can be reassured that Australian agriculture is clean, green, and sustainable.
“I encourage all interested stakeholders to look at the discussion paper and provide your views and ideas on how we can improve data interoperability across Australia’s farming supply chains.”
Food Agility Data Policy Manager, Gabi Ceregra is Co-Chair of the Australian Agricultural Traceability Data Standards Working Group, which developed the consultation paper.
“Traceability data is needed to ensure every food item can be tracked through all stages of production, processing and distribution, maintaining Australia's global reputation for high quality sustainable products, and product data is needed to satisfy consumer and regulatory requirements,” Ms Ceregra said.
“The framework aims to enable a shared understanding of key data, ensure secure data-sharing while maintaining consent and privacy, enable verification and keep Australian traceability systems in line with global advancements.”
Have Your Say on the Data Interoperability Framework here.
Consultation is open until 14 June 2024.
This news release was originally published by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.
