What are the benefits of a digital grain passport? Grain Market Daily

• May-22 UK feed wheat futures closed at £330.00/t yesterday, up £0.50/t from Fridays close. The Nov-22 contract settled at £297.95/t, down £1.20/t from Friday.
• New crop (Nov-22) Paris rapeseed futures gained €2.25/t from Fridays close, settling at €804.50/t on Tuesday.
• Industry sources suggest new season urea prices are currently being quoted in the range of £770-£840/t (delivery Jul-Dec).
• With both the wheat and barley balance sheets tight this season domestically, up to date information is key. Tomorrow, the latest cereals stocks data for the UK will be published by AHDB and Defra. To view the merchants, ports and co-ops stocks information click here and to view the on-farm stocks data click here.

For the past two years AHDB has been exploring the development of a digital grain passport with a number of key industry trade associations including the NFU, AIC and UK Flour Millers. AHDB’s commercial independence, and its role working on behalf of grower, processor and merchant levy payers across the UK makes it uniquely placed to coordinate a project with commercial sensitivities like this.  

The project has developed to the stage where we are now getting closer to agreeing in industry and AHDB to start the process of development and implementation. As part of this process, clear and open communication with levy payers is needed to explain the benefits of a digital grain passport.

There are a number of industry-wide benefits from moving from paper passports to a digital system. Beyond these, there are more specific benefits for different supply chain participants, some of which are detailed below: 

Growers  

• Immediate digital return of intake weight and quality data meaning subsequent grain loads can be better matched to contracted specs with fewer rejections. 
• Add grain details once and apply to many passports with batch functionality. 
• Data relating to all grain movements, including quality data, will be centralised, offering consistency in data handling regardless of how many merchants or buyers you supply. 
• Visibility of the load’s destination and haulier ahead of time and recorded for future reference. 

Merchants  

• Real time automatic assurance checks when assigning a grower and haulier to a load, highlighting problems while there is still time to resolve them. 
• Fewer mistakes and no more issues to sort out due to passport legibility, incomplete passports or missing or incorrect stickers. 
• Instant feedback of weight and grain quality data from processors. 
• Visibility of when a load has been collected and delivered in real time. 

Processors  

• Automatic assurance checking ahead of collection can highlight assurance problems when time is available to resolve them, rather than loads being rejected. 
• Visibility of the farmer and haulier for each load before it arrives. 
• Visible load statuses allow you to check the status of a load at any time. 

Hauliers  

• Fewer mistakes and no more tipping delays due to passport legibility, incomplete passports or missing or incorrect stickers. 
• Digital return of intake weight data, to hauliers and merchants, potentially speeding up admin processes and invoicing. 

Undoubtedly there will be challenges across industry to be overcome if a digital passport system is to be successfully adopted. Supply chains and grain movements, especially at harvest are agile and complex, with last minute unforeseen events requiring changes to plans.

Once the digital passport system is up and running, it will be up to each individual supply chain to decide when to start using it, and when to stop using the paper system. The Industry Advisory Group is anticipating a three-year period to proceed to the end of the paper system. This date will be widely communicated once it is agreed with industry.

As we progress in the coming weeks, AHDB and industry stakeholders will be keeping the communication lines open so that we can have a clear and constructive discussion on the development of the digital grain passport.

For more information on the digital grain passport please contact David Eudall (David.Eudall@ahdb.org.uk) and Derek Carless (Derek.Carless@ahdb.org.uk).

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