In mid-2021 AHSLEA was successful in securing a grant under the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment Traceability Grants Program Round 2 funding. The Traceability Grant awarded to AHSELA had four components:
- Design, purchase, manufacturing, installation and commissioning of stamping equipment at a pilot location (Geelong Leather, Culcairn).
- Data integration from the stamping equipment with National database and reporting systems (Victoria)
- Report for industry
Tanneries that process raw hides typically have a stamping system within their process to link hides to internal tracking and reporting systems within the tannery. These have the capacity to link a hide to a supplier (abattoir) and track a hide within a tannery.
What is absent however is a system that is capable of linking individual hides back to a birth farm, and a stamp that can stay with the hide through its next step in the supply chain once the hide leaves a tannery. Such a system will allow tannery customers to know, if necessary, from where the animal hide originated even as the hide is subsequently split and sided.
Installing such a tracing system into the process of a tannery requires some significant modifications, requiring in part:
- Bringing the stamping process to front end of the chain at the tannery as opposed to an ‘internal’ tracing stamp which may be applied later in the chain, for example after fleshing.
- Ensuring the stamping process can occur in a way that maintains and does not slow the process output from the tannery.
- Linking the output back into a reporting system and automated report output.
Tracing system at the pilot location
The tracing system supported by the Traceability Grant program commenced with the pricing, design and purchasing of major pieces of equipment from around June 2021 with the system fully operational by December 2022.
Geelong Leather successfully implemented the first inline stamping and tracing system for cattle hides. Hides leaving the Culcairn facility have an identification mark that is:
- Capable of staying with the hide including the drop splits as it moves to the next phase in the supply chain and on to the end leather manufacturer.
- Capable of tracking and reporting the farm history of the individual hide down to the Local Government Area for customers of the brand who desire such reporting.
Lessons from the pilot as well as the systems now in place with database integration and reporting will benefit other tanneries considering such a system for their customers.
The full industry report is available to AHSLEA members on request.
