Canadian Poultry Magazine

OnTrace Launches the Ontario Agri-food Premises Registry (OAPR)

By Canadian Poultry   

Features New Technology Production

July 3, 2008, Guelph, Ont. –
OnTrace Agri-food Traceability Inc. (OnTrace), is pleased to announce
the launch of the Ontario Agri-food Premises Registry (OAPR). The full
scale, Ontario-wide OAPR system is now live.

 “The launch of the OAPR fulfills OnTrace’s first key mandate, which was to deliver a premises identification registry for agriculture and agri-food in Ontario,” said Brian Sterling, CEO of OnTrace.  This was our first order of business when OnTrace started operations in December 2006. We have delivered a comprehensive and much-needed solution for both industry and government to use. We encourage anyone interested in finding out more about participating in the OAPR to visit www.ontraceagrifood.com. The more organizations and businesses that participate with and use it, the stronger the system will become.”

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 Two of the first permanent Premises Identifiers in Ontario are associated with the operations of Curtiss Littlejohn (Chair of Ontario Pork and of OnTrace) and Bette Jean Crews (Vice President of OFA and Vice Chair of OnTrace).

“The launch of the OAPR is a significant step for agriculture in Ontario,” said Bette Jean Crews. “I am proud to be one of the first to have a permanent premise identifier. The ability to identity premises and what is grown on them provides food producers in the province with a valuable business tool that will reinforce the credibility of food safety and food quality practices. That in turn will provide economic and competitive benefits for our industry. I encourage all food producers to investigate how OAPR will benefit their business.”

OAPR Benefits
The key benefits of a province-wide premises registry are:

  • It delivers a “single view of reality”. OnTrace can identify and validate what agricultural activity is taking place in Ontario, and where it is located.
  • It accelerates the process of finding out the source of a food product and provides an increased level of confidence in the data. The OAPR provides government and industry with “relevant, reliable and accessible” information about where food originates.
  • It can help ‘tie’ the origin(s) of a product (meat or crop) to a particular premise. This is a tremendous aid in emergency management and it will also verify the source and locality of food for consumers who want to ‘eat local’ or be certain that a particular product comes from Ontario.
  • Participants in the OAPR will receive the added benefit of a GS1 Global Location Number (GLN), providing access to the GS1 Canada Party & Location Registry; a move that will give them a tool to strengthen their global competitive position.


How OAPR Works
The OAPR system uses a ‘distributed architecture’ that currently layers publically available data with producer group data to identify, characterize and validate where agricultural activity is taking place in Ontario.  The OAPR system is not a duplication of information that already exists. It is a window into the data owned by various sources.  Producer groups, who participate, do so voluntarily at this time and OnTrace has negotiated agreements with data sources, so that it can access data for emergency management purposes.

OAPR Background
OnTrace completed a small-scale working pilot project in October 2007 that demonstrated the technical feasibility of the OAPR system. The pilot project encompassed four counties (Niagara North/South, Waterloo, and Middlesex) and a number of Ontario producer groups including the Ontario Tender Fruit Producers’ Marketing Board; the Chicken Farmers of Ontario; the Turkey Farmers of Ontario ; the Egg Farmers of Ontario, the Dairy Farmers of Ontario, and; the Ontario Broiler Hatching Egg and Chick Commission.

ABOUT ONTRACE AGRI-FOOD TRACEABILITY
OnTrace is a not-for-profit corporation, created to lead food traceability programs and initiatives in the province of Ontario.  OnTrace’s goals are to deliver traceability solutions that will enable the agriculture and agri-food industry in Ontario to become more innovative and competitive, and; to strengthen the capacity of industry and government to manage and respond to emergencies related to agriculture and food.
 
OnTrace is located at: 660 Speedvale Avenue West, Suite 300, Guelph ON N1K 1E5. Their contact coordinates are: Phone 519.766.9292, Fax 519.766.1313.  For media kit and further information, visit: www.ontraceagrifood.com
 
 


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