THE Scottish cereals and oilseeds industry is being urged to consider the possibility of an electronic grain passport scheme (eGrain Passport), following an 18-month pilot project funded by AHDB Cereals and Oilseeds.

The industry has until September 16 to feed back on the findings. Participants of the eGrain Passport pilot found the scheme had the potential to enhance farm and haulier assurance, and speed up the passport process.

AHDB Cereals and Oilseeds board member and chairman of Scottish Quality Crops, Andrew Moir, said: “The eGrain Passport would give me huge benefits as a farmer. Most importantly, there would be a quick flow of information both up and down the supply chain, which we don’t have at the moment.

“For example, if I got information quickly that there was a quality problem with a load, such as too high nitrogen, then I could stop other loads going and being rejected. It would allow me to minimise the cost of rejected loads.”

Black Isle monitor farm host, Brian Matheson, added: “In our case, accurate data on monthly grain movements could be useful. For example, if we could get information on N content going to Inverness, then that might enable us to have more power in our marketing.

“Instant information would be a real benefit to us. We can’t take the chance with rejection, so tend to flag up any potential issues before we send a load anyway. However, a platform allowing data to flow back to the farm would be useful, especially if there are two loads going out on consecutive days.”

Mr Moir was keen to emphasise the possible benefits across the supply chain, particularly regarding consistency throughout the industry.

A representative from Glencore Grain UK said: “The eGrain Passport allowed increased transparency in the supply chain with live assurance checking, reducing delays due to errors on passports at intake. Delivery performance can also be more closely monitored which improves efficiency.”

Mr Moir added: “The eGrain Passport would be a world-leading system. Customers would be able to see all assurance statuses in a robust format, and that has to be good for the industry. I think we need to be serious about being a forward-looking industry, showing our customers we are adapting to this fast paced world and this is using technology to our advantage.

“There is also an immediate cost benefit to the supply chain, as assurance bodies wouldn’t have to send out large packages of paper.”

Key benefits across the supply chain:

• A new industry standard for assurance checking which could apply to every load moved.

• Flexibility to accommodate future industry data requirements.

• A universal system, so that farmers and hauliers wouldn’t have to work with several different systems.

• Aggregated data held within the eGrain database could, given appropriate security controls, be used for the whole industry’s benefit.