Dublin Farms Inc. has added traceability of its produce from harvest to distribution to its inventory. Over the past year, Matt Hickman has been in charge of the traceability project.

“We wanted to modernize our operation. We worked with the Farmsoft app and can now trace our product from a block in the field through the packing plant and out the door to the buyer’s warehouse,” Hickman mentioned.

He went on to say that retail and food service buyers, as well as their customers, want to know where their food comes from. Dublin Farms’ harvesting machinery is outfitted with a laptop computer that pinpoints the 4-6 hectare block from which each bin is loaded. The bin is subsequently assigned a barcode, which accompanies it throughout the packing process. As a result, that barcode is included on both the carton and the pallet when a carton of potatoes is packed, warehoused, and transported to the buyer.

Potatoes are a low-risk food safety problem, and Hickman can not recall any food safety recalls for potatoes anywhere in the US.

“If there ever was a problem, we will be able to trace our potatoes back to that block,” he said, cited by Shore Daily News, noting that Dublin Farms typically divides a 40-hectare potato field into eight blocks.

While the initial motivation for implementing the traceability function was for peace of mind and consumer interest, Hickman believes the major benefit will be data creation for the organization itself.

“The data will give us lots of insights on how each block performed, what was packed, and what we sold,” Hickman declared.

Dublin Farms grows red, white, and yellow potatoes on its various blocks, and it is constantly experimenting with new types and nutrients to determine what works best.

“Now, we will be able to pull up the data and determine, for example, if a particular biological application was worth it. Do we get better yields? What is our size profile? Is the extra cost worth it?” Hickman mentioned.

Dublin Farms offers its customers a variety of pack sizes, from a 1.3-kilo poly bag targeted at retailers to a 900-kilo bin used by processors. Operators in the food industry often bring a 22-kilo bag. Once more, the company will be able to dig deeply into its sales data to establish the profitability of each offering thanks to the data produced by the new traceability method.

Hickman stated that the 2.2-kilo bag has taken over as the preferred option for retail consumers.

“We hardly ever sell any 4.5-kilo bags anymore. I think last year we did about three pallets for someone in the Philly market,” he explained.

David Hickman anticipates that Dublin Farms will begin harvesting its potatoes between June 22 and June 26 this year.

“We have had exceptional growing weather. Our crop is in great shape. This year we are expecting to have about the same volume as last year, but with fewer whites and more reds and yellows,” Hickman concluded.