Second Thought to operate CFP traceability
The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) is a set of rules for sustainably managing European fishing fleets and conserving fish stocks. The European Commission has decided in 2018 to initiate a revision of the fisheries control system.
The overall objective of the revision is to modernise, strengthen and simplify the EU fisheries control system, ensure sustainability and increase the level playing field in fisheries control.
Part of the control system is the traceability, as the fish batches need to be recorded and traced. Due to complexity of the fishing trade and fish processing, the batches are constantly mixed, divided and added. This has been the challenge in developing a functioning traceability management.
Second Though Ltd in Finland has come up with a simple solution to this complicated problem. Second Thought Ltd’s Unique Product Identifier Service UPIDS has been innovated a few years ago and can be cost-effectively used for CFP traceability as well as other unique product traceability needs.
The Fishmongers association of Finland is now supporting the UPIDS traceability to be used for CFP traceability. The first commitments and deals with clients have been made and traceability chains can be established. This is a welcoming change to the situation as the transition period is well overdue and sanctions for the lack of traceability are already common. Fisheries and seafood market operators that do not comply, are soon to be unauthorized for not complying with the EU legislation. That stops both the domestic and export fish business of these operators.
In addition to the support of the Fishmonger Association of Finland, Second Thought is also co-operating with international labeling machine suppliers to stamp the identifier to each box and batch of fish. Several co-operating international ERP suppliers have stated that UPIDS is easy and cost-effective to integrate to ERP-systems. And in the end, the sales batches that reach the stores will bear the GS1 Digital Link standard QR code that can both be used to fetch all the required traceability info and conform to the GS1 2D barcode standards. – Although we’re starting out in Finland, we’re expecting international interest. The solution has no national limits, says Second Thought CEO Jani Kasanen.
If you are interested in or need to have the CFP traceability, please feel free to contact us via website contact form or follow Second Thought on our social media channels.
More about the Common fisheries policy:
Our finnish readers may be interested in reading this EU warning about refusing to comply with the rules (in Finnish):