Improving Agricultural Market Performance:
Creation and Development of Market Institutions
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6.2.5 Traceability & Standards
Improve overall food quality standards and implement means for ingredient and input
traceability in order to further enhance both safety and market acceptance of agricultural
and food products.
Traceability of origin for many (strategic and priority) agricultural products can also be lost if
issue of farmers’ registration is not addressed. For instance, in Tunisia - where an efficient
distribution channel is the key missing market channel in the agricultural market system (as
too many intermediaries and traders are involved) - the traceability of agricultural products is
nearly impossible. For many products, it’s a “story without a story-teller” – there is no clear
global positioning and branding of the product (e.g. Ugandan coffee). The traceability of food in
the market system is critical for food safety, but also for broader strategic and market
monitoring purposes. The functioning of the broader food market system is considerably
hampered without this data.
A good point-of-departure – besides Turkey’s CKS - is provided by Indonesia’s attempt to
improve the traceability of products. Indonesia has been looking to improve the traceability of
its agricultural products in response to export commodities, which were not in compliance
with international standards and, therefore, were refused access to certain export markets.
Regulation is currently designed, which will firstly require intermediaries, traders, and
distributors to be registered online with the Ministry of Trade, after which they will be
licensed. This online system, INATRADE, should enable the Ministry of Trade to improve
market surveillance, product traceability and monitoring of agricultural products and market
participants as, for instance, producers should register their middlemen and intermediaries,
while importers need to register their domestic distributors. In the future, the system should
be integrated with other Ministries’ systems (e.g. Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economy
Affairs, and COFTRA), which would also enable Indonesia’s agricultural market institutions to
trace farmers or areas not meeting export requirements in terms of standardization, food
safety, and SPS, and address these issues.
In fact, standardization of products (e.g. size, volume, and ingredients) is critically needed to
improve international market access for smallholders’ products and therefore for the overall
economic success of many OIC Member Countries. The absence and/or weak enforcement of
standardization of agri-food products also undermines the potential for processing and vale-
addition activities and has, in fact, led to countries losing out on agri-processing FDI, as has
been mentioned by the IPA of Uganda. So long as local products do not adhere to international
standards, international markets will not accept them as appropriate inputs, closing doors for
economic opportunity.
6.2.5 Research Laboratories
Invest in national or multi-national research laboratories to support food standards and
also provide local best-practices for growing, crop rotation, food production, safety, and
other agricultural and food knowledge-bases.
The review of national food and agricultural institutions highlighted the importance of
research laboratories in the adoption of new technologies and farming practices and
adaptation of seed varieties to local soil and climate conditions. Not all OIC Member Countries