NPA welcomes progress towards new traceability system

The NPA has welcomed the latest progress being made in the development of a new statutory multi-species livestock traceability service.

AHDB recently announced it has created a new company called Livestock Information Limited (LI Ltd) to manage the design and implementation of the Livestock Information Service.

Defra has given LI Ltd the mandate to design and implement the service and has agreed to fully fund it in a way that provides flexibility for any party to invest in further developing the service for the benefit of the meat and livestock sectors.

LI Ltd, a not-for-profit subsidiary of AHDB, in which Defra has a 49% stake, will work collaboratively with the meat and livestock industry and Government to develop a 'world-leading multi-species livestock information service' for cattle, sheep, pigs, goats and deer to be implemented from late 2020.

The NPA is a member of the government-industry Traceability Design User Group (TDUG) that supported Defra in the design of the service.

NPA chief executive Zoe Davies said: “We are pleased that this project is moving forward and that Defra will be fully-funding the service. This project has so far proved to be a good example of Government and industry working together to pursue common goals.

“While the pig sector already has a well-functioning traceability system, we believe this new service can offer benefits across the livestock sectors, particularly in terms of improved traceability to deliver better disease control.

“We have tried to ensure the benefits of the current system are retained for pigs as we move towards a better overall system that will provide more reassurance for consumers and the supply chain about the food they buy.”