Potentially, electronic technologies can help to improve most aspects of a business including production, sales, purchasing and training by making business routines simpler, more productive, cheaper, quicker and more effective.

The market opportunities are immense given that there are now more than 100 million regular European internet users (34 per cent of the European population ranging from 65.2 per cent in Sweden to 11.4 per cent in Greece) and more than two thirds of businesses have a website or daily internet access. Over three quarters of businesses use mobile phones that enable faster information exchange, dissemination and improved networking.

Yet while e-commerce clearly offers huge potential benefits to horticultural businesses many have failed due to inexperience, lack of clear value added (over traditional trading) approaches or simply because of under utilisation or just bad advice.

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FReLECTRA divides e-commerce into 10 main areas:

• Websites, corporate presentations and promotions

To enable customers to browse detailed descriptions of a company, products and prices, place orders 24 hours every day from anywhere in the world and enable traditional, specialist and even local suppliers to gain access to much larger potential markets. Nearly 38 per cent of companies with internet access now utilise it for making purchases or for identifying new suppliers.

• Providing market information

Simply by inserting any topic of interest into an internet search engine such as Yahoo or Google, a whole range of papers, presentations and commercial information may be obtained quickly and cheaply, and more than two thirds of companies use the internet for information gathering.

Through surfing the web a mass of information about markets, potential markets and competitors throughout the world can be found. Most food magazines are now online, as well as business and trade directories, customer surveys, producer, wholesale and retail market prices, trade regulations, events calendars, business reports, specialist data and market analysis. (see freshinfo).

• Product trading and auctioning

Auctioning is already well established as a traditional marketing tool for many wholesalers and supermarkets and other buyers are increasingly placing their procurement requirements on-line. Auctioning systems are forecast to be further encouraged by the use of real-time transfer of quality pictures across the internet and on mobile phones.

• Product tracking

With around 70 per cent of business costs being supply- chain related, a tightly integrated, efficient chain can deliver a substantial cost saving. Digital cameras enable real-time transfer of pictures, tracking and remote inspection of produce, providing buyers with accurate and immediate market information on quality and supply.

• Product tracing

This is becoming particularly important for food products in order to conform to European food-safety legislation and to deal with the diversity of international production and supply-chain practices.

Product can be quickly identified using unique and globally recognisable identifiers. Bar codes are the standard method of showing product data in a machine readable format. An innovation under development is the reduced space barcode (RSS) small enough to identify pieces individually and potentially enabling individual pieces of fruit to be identified according to its source, variety as well as its price.

• Remote communications and networks

Through integrated systems, producers and buyers can plan production and demand as well as improve scheduling to reduce harvest to consumer delivery times and post harvest losses. Information can also be exchanged through short text messaging services (SMS) to obtain immediate information on areas such as market prices, technologies or spraying programmes.

Video conferencing also allows information exchange and advances in digital television may soon enable producers and buyers access to improved interactive services, enabling niche markets and particular sectors to be targeted.

• Electronic data interchange (EDI)

Processing and dispatching customer orders and payments through EDI considerably simplifies the paperwork required for shipping, dispatch and money transfer. Instead of printing out documents such as orders and invoices, documents are sent electronically from one computer to another. Although, initially it does take time and money to build trust between the trading partners and agree joint business processes, EDI does give a supplier a competitive advantage when dealing with large customers.

• Banking and payments

Electronic settlements between producers and traders replace the physical transfer of cash and provide an alternative to post-dated cheques. Electronic-banking enables transactions 24 hours a day and unlike paper-based transactions, payments that are made electronically clear immediately or at a date agreed between buyer and seller. Most electronic shopping software products provide a way to collect credit card information securely online.

• GIS, data storage and referencing

Graphical information systems (GIS), digital mapping and positioning technology is becoming more affordable and available and allows graphical representations of detailed statistical information. Using this technology, precision farming techniques, for example, can become more widespread among growers through use of positional information, remote soil analysis and crop inspection.

Newly developed DVD technology has a huge capacity for electronically storing and disseminating information - not only useful for filing papers and photographs, but now also provides opportunities for the development of horticultural databases and reference materials in areas such as the varieties of fruit available, ongoing and completed research programmes and trial results or digitised field maps.

• On-line training

The seasonal time demands on growers and the remote location of many farms makes classroom training and further education difficult to deliver effectively. Provision of on-farm distance learning over the internet provides new options for disseminating educational content and delivering it effectively.

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FReLECTRA aims to demystify e-commerce for business managers in horticulture and emphasises that e-commerce is only a tool to support effective horticultural business management and not a replacement for it. This means growers still need to follow good agricultural practices, products have to be harvested, stored, handled and transported effectively, customers will have to be identified and proper procedures for quality assurance employed. Proper finance still needs to be available. The FReLECTRA manual also provides practical advice on key issues related to all aspects of good production practice, harvest and post harvest technologies, marketing and management. A section has also been designed specifically for trainers and advisers and should help in formulating courses and workshops.

Materials are downloadable and include case studies, examples, linked websites and references. FReLECTRA is developing its on line associate networks to exchange experience between traders, growers and advisers and is encouraging continual feedback, case studies and photographs in order to update and develop this manual over time.

RAMESYS PLATFORM

Leading retailers and advisers will share the platform at a conference on March 30 to help others achieve compliance.

Ramesys, the IT solutions and services provider, will host the conference, which will assist food retailers and manufacturers to prepare for legislation on food traceability due to come into force in January 2005.

Speakers from Asda, Safeway, Tesco and Ramesys will be joined by Neil Griffiths, ceo of leading legal and technical advisers LawLabs and chairman of the Society of Food Hygiene Technology, to present information on the new requirements and to discuss how all those involved in the food manufacture to retail supply chain can ensure that their traceability processes will comply.

Under the new EU laws, all food producers must be able to identify products by batch, lot or consignment numbers and traceability of products must be possible at all stages of production, processing and distribution.

Furthermore, any business involved in both the manufacturing and the sale of food products, must be able to identify from whom it obtained an ingredient or product and to whom it has supplied a food ingredient or product, referred to in simple terms as ‘one step forward and one step back’.

These mandatory obligations mean that both producers and retailers must ensure that they are able to fulfil these new food safety requirements.

The conference is intended to assist by providing detailed information on the current legal environment in the UK and highlight the implications of the new legislation. In-depth case studies on compliance achievement will be presented by the leading retailers and Ramesys will focus on the supply-chain solutions which are available to improve both innovation and traceability.

Bill Donoghue, Ramesys’s managing director, said: “We took the decision to stage this conference because having assisted most of the major retailers and their suppliers to achieve due diligence and traceability compliance for current UK legislation, we are both uniquely qualified for and have a vested interest in developing the technology which will enable both retailers and manufacturers to respond to the dictates of the new legislation.”

The event will take place between 9.30am and 1pm on March 30 at the Lanesborough Hotel, Hyde Park Corner, London.

There is no charge for attendance and those wishing to attend are required to register by calling Jenny Teasdale at Ramesys on 0115 971 2069.

VR HEAVEN

Virtual Reality (VR) technology will transform the way machine manufacturers service their clients in the food processing and packaging sectors.

So says EASeSET, a consortium of machine manufacturers, packagers, process engineers and food companies, that backed the toolkit which transformed the VR technology used in the automotive industry so that it was both affordable and suitable for this sector.

The EASeSET toolkit allows manufacturers to supply its customers with a visual, electronic instruction manual for equipment, which includes 3D models, video and audio clips of the machinery.

Advantages for users include quicker fault diagnosis, easier machine maintenance and changeover by following the virtual procedures. This should translate to cost-savings as maintenance call-outs reduce and efficiency improves.

SEVERN SHINES FOR BEACON

A versatile Welsh media solutions company has become an important ingredient in the success story of Beacon Foods, one of the fastest growing companies in Wales.

Newtown-based print, design, e-commerce and multi-media specialists Severn Media Group capitalised on its ability to offer single source solutions by helping the award-winning fresh and exotic ingredients supplier to upgrade its marketing and sales systems for 2004.

After revamping Beacon Foods' website to enhance the company's presence in the global shop window, Severn Media Group was also asked to produce a new corporate brochure and CD-Rom presentation to support a concerted sales drive.

The colourful, 12-page brochure and professional CD-Rom presentation both illustrate the range and breadth of the company's history, products, services and manufacturing capabilities.

As part of the restructuring of Beacon Foods' sales department, Severn Media Group has also developed a bespoke extra-net customer management system to enable staff to access detailed information via their laptop computers from any location.

The complex database system allows the sales force to access and input detailed information about a customer at the touch of a button.

"Severn Media Group has clearly demonstrated it has the skills and expertise to deliver a range of professional services to a very high standard," said Edward Gough, md of Beacon Foods, which has a workforce of 140.

"It's a major benefit that we are able to source so many top quality business solutions from the same company, which is now familiar with Beacon Foods, rather than having to deal with a number of different suppliers."

Severn Media Group's commercial director Phil Trenbath said: "Our relationship with Beacon Foods has been carefully developed over two years and we are delighted to be working with companies of this calibre, playing a small but significant part in their success story.

"There is nothing extraordinary about any one of the quality individual services that we provide, but to have the same design team providing the complete range of business solutions under one roof is unique.

"This one-stop-shop solution is proving extremely attractive and cost-effective to SMEs both within and outside Wales."

HACCP UPDATE

An upgraded version of a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) Documentation Software is now available to all food companies and related businesses.

The software owned by Campden and Chorleywood Food Research Association (CCFRA), has been modified to cater for both small and large operations and includes new functionality such as flow-charts, plan sharing and decision trees to assist with the system navigation.

The new release meets the international HACCP standards and facilitates the mandatory tasks that food companies must comply with, such as keeping an audit trail.

The new version was developed as part of a project supported by South West Food and Drink and Advantage West Midlands. Further information is available from CCFRA.

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