Traceability and Australia’s agricultural exports: Economic principles underpinning policy framework

This report presents an economic framework considering national efforts in tracking Australia’s agricultural exports from ‘paddock-to-plate'. Economic principles underpinning traceability policies for Australia’s agricultural exports are considered in 3 key areas: Export certification (to reduce costly regulatory processes); Fraud risk management (reducing likelihood of fraud); and Sustainable agricultural exports (increasing the reliability and credibility of Australia’s sustainable agricultural exports). Establishing an effective and efficient framework for standards, verification and traceability systems is key for achieving growth in Australia’s sustainable agricultural exports. Government can play an important role in the development of traceability systems given public good characteristics (that the market cannot provide), negative externalities and information market failures in export market supply chains.