Background
It was at the Rendez-vous des décideurs de l'agriculture et de l'agroalimentaire québécoise in 1998, that the Quebec government and the Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA) decided upon a goal of implementing a permanent identification system and the traceability of agricultural products from the farm to the table.
In accordance with this objective, on September 25, 2001, an autonomous non-profit organization, Agri-Traçabilité Québec, was created. The primary mandate of Agri-Traçabilité Québec (ATQ) was to implement tracability systems in the bovine, ovine and swine industries.
The implementation of the traceability system is subsidized by the ministère de l'Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l'Alimentation.
Brief chronological review
2001/2002 – Traceability in the bovine sector
- Choice of tags and suppliers
- Information meetings with all concerned stakeholders
- Regulations
- Automation of the network
2002/2003 – Traceability in bovine and ovine productions
- Automation of the network: tools for producers
- Information exchange with the Holstein Association
- New instructions for installing ID tags
- Common form
- Site maps
- Start of ovine pilot project
2003/2004 - Traceability in bovine, ovine and cervid productions
- Traceability for ovines
- Pilot project on bovine tag retention
- Choice of a new bovine ID tag
- Exchange of information on traceability
- Cervid pilot project
- Contacts and processing of documents
2004/2005- Traceability on bovine, ovine, cervid and table egg productions
- Pilot project on bovine tag retention and the quality of electronic and visual panel (dangle) tags for cattle in loose housing
- Pilot project for cervids
- Pilot project on transportation
- Pilot project for table eggs
- Communciations with producers
2005/2006 - Traceability in bovine, ovine, cervid and table egg productions
- Continuation of pilot project on bovine tag retention in loose housing
- Ovine pilot project
- Cervid pilot project
- Pilot project on transportation
- Table egg pilot project
- Reception of visitors and representation on national committees
2006/2007 - Traceability in bovine, ovine, cervid and table egg productions
- Automation
- Updating of bovine files
- Conclusion of pilot project on bovine tag retention in loose housing
- New project on bovine tag retention
- Conclusion of ovine pilot project
- Transportation pilot project: solutions for small and large trucks, as well as two new partners
- Conclusion of table eggs pilot project
- 5-Year Anniversary Review
- Founding of Agri-Traçabilité International, a subsidiary of ATQ
2007/2008 - Traceability in bovine, ovine, cervid, swine, table egg and lettuce productions
- Updating of bovine and ovine files
- Automation: Canadian program on RFID tag scanners and readers; support program to automate data transfer and program for loaning out electronic tag (RFID) stick readers
- Re-opening of the border... and real birth dates
- Access to site (premises) numbers
- ISO file
- Evaluation of FDX-type identifiers
- Pilot project on identification and traceability for lettuce
- Pilot project on the coding of table eggs
- Evaluation of the implementation of an identification system for the swine sector
- Bovine tag retention
- Transportation pilot project: software applications
- Project on the transportation of livestock – conclusion of the "Lots" component
- Pilot project to evaluate the use of various tools – conclusion of "Status tags" component
2008/2009 Traceability in bovine, ovine, cervid, swine, table egg and lettuce productions
- Ovine sector: two updating operations completed
- Feeder calves: updating of information in the system
- Dairy sector: updating of data
- Follow-up action on the implementation of an identification and traceability system for the swine sector
- Automation
- Traceability for beef
- Identification and traceability for lettuce
- Conclusion of the pilot project on table eggs coding
- Retention of bovine tags
- Transportation pilot project: hand-held readers, fixed scanners and TransTraq
- Traceability Information Guide
- Expansion of Agri-Tracabilité International
Achievements >>
