How does a Digital Grain Passport work?

Grain passports are certainly not a new concept, and they have been widely used by farmers and producers across the UK.

Although the Combinable Crops Passport is a voluntary system, it forms a cornerstone of the UK grain supply chain and UK assurance systems.

To help you prepare for the transition towards new, digitised passports, we’ve outlined how Digital Grain Passports will work, how they can be used by farmers, and the benefits that they will offer.

What is a Digital Grain Passport?

Originally, the idea of a grain passport was designed so that everyone involved in the supply chain could easily see what post-harvest treatments had been applied to each specific individual consignment of combinable crops.

Over the last few years, plans have been underway to digitise this process, and create a Digital Grain Passport that can be used more easily across the industry.

As it stands, a grain passport requires farmers to print out and manually complete numerous paper passports, and repeat this process for all of their shipments of grain.

Digital Grain Passport Graphic

This represents a very manual, time-consuming process, which is largely incompatible with the increasingly modern, digital processes that characterise the rest of the supply chain. So, Digital Grain Passports are designed to digitise this key process, thereby making it more efficient, streamlined, secure and practical.

However, the idea has faced some considerable hurdles over the last few years. This is a result of disagreements arising from different industry groups, and due to the complex nature of the project (which will need to fulfil the requirements of many different parties).

Following the most recent consultation, a number of further changes were made to the business case. These include making the feedback of quality data to growers an obligation; honing financials; and developing an alternative telephone process for growers without access to a computer or smartphone.

How can farmers use a Digital Grain Passport?

A Digital Grain Passport requires farmers to input a number of key details about their grain consignment.

This involves inputting the following data:

The name of the farmer
The details of the farm
The type of grain
The grain’s quality parameters
Any certifications that have been met
The date of the harvest, and the conditions present
The storage conditions that are required
The details of the grain’s transportation (including who is transporting it, and the route it will take)

To create and use a Digital Grain Passport, farmers need to:

Before the delivery, the farmer needs to enter the required data fields. This can be done either through an online platform, mobile app, or over the phone.
The farmer will then receive advice about requirements for the grain, including ‘what’ and ‘when’.
Before the grain is transported, update the passport to include details of how it will be transported. (Then once the grain has been delivered, the recipient can also use the passport to check everything is in order).
As the grain goes through the supply chain, the passport will be updated in real-time, and all parties can access this key information. Equally, historical data is also retained.

Watch the Digital Passport farmer demonstration

What benefits will Digital Grain Passports bring?

Once implemented, it is hoped that Digital Grain Passports will:

Streamline the entire supply chain
Allow grain to be tracked more accurately
Make the process of grain verification easier
Effectively replace traditional paper passports, with a more efficient and secure digital alternative
Improve the accuracy of the process
Increase traceability and transparency
Saving time for everyone involved, including farmers, receivers and transporters alike
Improving quality control standards
Helping to ensure industry regulations are met
Increasing trust and confidence in the market
Removing the need for assurance stickers
Reducing the number of illegibility or incompletion issues (which are common with paper passports)
Establishing a two-way, real-time data flow
Removing the need to store paper passports for the required time period

Answering some common FAQs

Below, we’ve answered some of your most common FAQs about Digital Grain Passports and plans for their implementation.

Q: Are there any businesses that will need to pay to use the Digital Grain Passports system?
A: Any businesses that either do not pay levies or are trading non-levied crops will need to pay for Digital Grain Passports. This rate will be based on the number of Digital Grain Passports used.

Q: Will I need to duplicate the processes I already use?
A: No, as the Digital Grain Passport system is precisely designed to avoid individual systems from spreading alongside it. So, the system that is being developed will integrate with a wide range of existing software, to make adoption of this new system as easy as possible.

Q: How will handling rejections happen?
A: The Digital Grain Passport system will include a number of options for rejection. This includes the ability to redirect, return to sender, retest (and then accept, after previously rejecting) and more. Within the Digital Grain Passport, the details of the rejection will be accessible for the second recipient.

If you have any further questions about Digital Grain Passports, or to learn more about how weighing software and solutions can support your implementation of the new passport system, the Parkerfarm team is on hand to help.

^{Image and video from https://ahdb.org.uk/digital-passport}