Traceability

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Traceability

balmed traceability

Balmed sources cocoa, robusta coffee and cashew nuts (RCN) from over 13.000 small scale farmers in Sierra Leone. Before entering the Balmed Certification Programm, every farmer must be registered within the system and get a unique farmer code. The codes guarantees the identification of the person and the amount of production. Detailed informations are collected from the participants: Name, Village, Acreage, Crops, Family Size, Age and Religion. After filling out the farm entry form the farmer is registered under the Balmed certification system. To guarantee the propper and exact data collection, Balmed manages its own traceability department with internal field auditors to check the collected data and crosscheck with the registered farmers. Every year Balmed is audited by external certification bodies like IMO (Institute for Marketecology) and FLO-CERT (Fairtrade Certification) to fulfill its requirements.
Balmed Internal Control System (ICS) enables Balmed to manage over 13.000 small scale farmers under various international certifications, like UTZ, Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade. The ICS surveilances the quality of the products and the social aspects like labour conditions and gender issues.

Balmed is operating a customized Point of Sales Traceability System by the software firm SAP (SAP Rural Sourcing Management). All transaction data is captured with mobile handheld devices (tablets, smartphones) and synchronized with the central database of Balmed. Biometrical farmer identification avoid farmer duplication or unauthorized payout. The ICS system captures and analyzes all required data for international certification and accounting purposes. The cloud software provide real time trading data and visualization on the cloud server, in order to have a streamlined monitoring and evaluation process. Click on the link to see a sample data set from cocoa purchases in the region.

TRACEABILITY CLOUD