Progress and key challenges for connecting agricultural sector to global market in the region

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Progress and key challenges for connecting agricultural sector to global market in the region Session 3: Re-thinking Trade Facilitation Strategies for More Inclusive Regional Integration: Focusing on

1 Progress and key challenges for connecting agricultural sector to global market in the region Session 3: Re-thinking Trade Facilitation Strategies for More Inclusive Regional Integration: Focusing on SMEs and the Agricultural Sector UNNExT Advisory Committee Director, Institute for IT Innovation (i-nova) Kasetsart University, Bangkok The 7 th Asia-Pacific Trade Facilitation Forum Deepening Regional Integration through Trade Facilitation October 2015, Wuhan, China

2 Objectives of this presentation To propose trade facilitation policies, regulatory environment and specific measures for effectively assisting agriculture firms to better participate in the international & regional trade. The proposal is to call for strengthening regional cooperation and harmonization in cross-border agriculture value-chain management enabling by cross-border paperless trade facilitation. Page 2

3 Progress of Paperless Trade in Asia-Pacific Sub-regions and improvement opportunities Nearly 40% of the Asia-Pacific economies are now implementing their paperless trade, i.e. national Single Window environments, however Electronic Single Window Systems implementation remains at a relatively early stage, e.g. single information submission, and inter-agency process streamlining are still the implementation challenges. Implementation of Electronic application and issuance of Preferential Certificates of Origin and Trade Licenses (and also e-health & e-sps Certs) are well below the overall regional average. Cross-border paperless trade systems implementation remains mostly at the pilot stage or not yet implemented at all. Referring to ESCAP, UNRC TF Survey 2015 Page 3

4 Key Strategies for Successful Inclusive & Sustainable Agriculture Trade - value chain management is our challenge Promote understanding of demand-side requirements, e.g. Food quality, food safety (chemical-free) & traceability are key requirements of major importing countries. 2. Enhance production capability to produce goods that meet the requirements of target consumers with differentiation, e.g. Promoting chemical-free or organic agricultural produces 3. Establish sustainable business models viable for SMEs and smallholder farmers in the region, e.g. Association of smallholder farmers sharing cost & capability for internal control, certification, packaging and trade management. 4. Adopt efficient business processes and good management in agriculture firms, logistics sectors and government, e.g. With crop information and quality management, certification, traceability, efficient logistics support, and paperless trade facilitation. Page 4

traceability features cleaning selection

5 data-entry A Case Example Smallholder farmers working together through a Cooperative sharing cost & efforts on post-harvesting, traceability, marketing and export management Farmers bring 70-75%-maturity bananas to the coop for selection, traceability, trade and transport operations. Good Management enabled by ICT, e.g. members & crop Information management, packaging & barcode labeling with traceability features cleaning selection tagging bar-coding transport Ready for truck transportation and exporting to Japan by ships Traceability information, e.g. each banana package coming from which farm, is available on the internet for international consumers to access and check. Page 5

6 Value Chain for Exporting Banana (Thayang Agriculture Co-op) About 400 individual banana farmers/smallholders owners of the co-op A Case Example Production (Chemical-free banana) Post Harvest, e.g. Selection, Cleaning & Packaging Thayang Cooperative Petchaburi Province, Thailand Price guarantee and also annual revenue sharing through the co-op Otento (Thailand) Co., Ltd Selling Marketing & Trading Land Transport/ Freight Forwarding Transport Company with Controlled-Temperature Container Transport Company with Controlled-Temperature Container Transport Sea Transport Importing Sea Carrier WAGO Co., Ltd. Japan Tops Supermarket, Hotels, Retailers, Bakery, Farmer Markets. Market/ Consumers Buyers/Consumers Toto Consumer Cooperative Society Japan Page 6 International Market Domestic Market

7 Development Opportunities for Cross-border Agriculture Value Chain with e-trade/e-trade Faclitation Supply Exporting Country e-trade e-trade Facilitation Importing Country e-trade Demand Smallholder Farmers Collaboration SME Seller Exporter Exporter & Freight Transport Providers Regulatory Gov Agencies Regulatory Gov Agencies Importer & Freight Transport Providers SME Buyer Importer Demand Market Applying Good Management Practices & ICT for improving farm production quality, packaging and traceability of the produces Page 7 1 Farmer Group Adopting e-marketing/ e-trade Management Good Practices enabled with ICT PCS NSW Developing e-permits, e-health & e-sps certificates of agriculture products for better export clearance by connecting to the NSW and PCS at the exporting country. NSW = Regulatory National Single Window across a border NSW 4 PCS Cross-border electronic exchange e.g. e-sps Certificates exchange, e-co, e-awb (Air Waybill) PCS = Port Community System Adopting e-marketing/e-trade Management Our Target Understand and meet the buyers requirements, e.g. Quality Standards & Certifications

8 Proposed Specific Measures at the national and regional-cooperation level. 1. Building capacity on management best practices and digitalization for smallholder-farmer collaborations in improving their quality production, packaging and traceability management. 2. Building capacity on marketing/trading management and digitalization for smallholder-farmers and SME traders, e.g. through e-marketplace participation for accessing market information, publishing their product information online, receiving order and conducting fulfillment transactions electronically. 3. Promoting and assisting the food/agriculture-related regulatory agencies in streamlining and digitizing their internal operations and services, e.g. for issuing import/export-related Permits, Licenses, and Health/SPS Certificates electronically. 4. Promoting and assisting those regulatory agencies to electronically coordinate in the NSW platform and cross-border paperless trading, e.g. for single window entry, and cross-border information exchange. Page 8

Agriculture Management Best Practices and

barcode label of this agri-food product,

this product coming from, product/nutrition

) can be readily accessible through Internet.

9 Agriculture Management Best Practices and Digitization can innovatively assist smallholder farmers. A Case Example A smart phone can read the 2D barcode label of this agri-food product, then the traceability information (where this product coming from, product/nutrition information, how to cook, etc.) can be readily accessible through Internet. Page 9

10 1. Registration process of flora plantations, associated lists of flora and their - Manual and paper-based quota/capacities (Application Form-pp15, and Registered/Output application submission Form-pp16) 2. Amendment process for flora plantations, flora - lists Paper-based and quotation workflow (addition, deletion, new flora, transactions, other changes e.g. etc.) (Forms pp 17, 18, 19, 20, 21) 3. CITES Import archive Permits and to search. Thailand (Form pp 13 + Certificate of Origin + CITES Export Permits + Phytosanitary Cert in some cases) from - the Costly origin and country, take and requesting for CITES Import Permits 4. CITES Export Permits from Thailand (Form pp 16, pp to 13 complete + CITES Import each Permits from the destination country), and requesting for CITES Export transaction Permits 5. CITES Transit Process at the border (Form pp 13 - Difficulty + CITES Import in data Permits at the destination, cross and checking transit clearance & process at the border) Page 10 Change Management Challenges within each government agency! From the familiar As-Is Process & Environment validation, approval, several days for 2-3 physical visits validation with possible paper fraud and error prone. Continuous leadership from Director General Strong interdivision collaboration Systematic Process Change Management To a new To-Be Process & Environment 1. Importers/Exporters can submit their application forms online without physical visits to the government - Electronic office. application submission instead of paper documents 2. Importers/Exporters can check status of their applications online. 3. Government officers can issue the CITES Permits online. - Electronic-based workflow 4. Those transactions, CITES Permits issuing e.g. at automatic the DOA main office can be sent electronically to the DOA border office, validation and also to match and with workflow the corresponding Customs automation. Declaration for faster/more compliant border clearance (through National Single Window). - Faster/less cost: 5. Those different application forms, and CITES import/export/transit-related 2-3 physical visits Permits could be in electronic forms, or printed forms as requested. were reduced to 1 physical visit, 6. Data cross checking between the DOA main office, the DOA border office, and Customs to reduce fraud, and or none for each improve accuracy. transaction 7. Amendments (Add/Update/Delete) can easily handled - Better compliance with data electronically. cross checking

11 Change Management Challenges among government agencies! From the As-Is Multiple Windows, Manual Process & Environment Continuous leadership from Prime Minister Strong interagency collaboration, e.g. inter-agency process redesign National-level Project Mgmt Office (PMO) NSW Central Operator for Investment, Development, Operations. To a new To-Be Electronic Single Window (single submission), Paperless Transactions & Environment Page 11

12 Recommendations for international and/or regional co-operation Conduct detailed case studies and/or assist the development of national or sub-regional pilot projects for smallholder clusters, e.g. household farmers and SME traders to engage in cross-border agriculture trade with agriculture & trade management best practices. Develop policy recommendations and guidelines on how to formulate and implement national agriculture value chain development plan. Develop management guidelines on How to develop e-sps/e-health Certificates and related import/export e-permits issuing systems, How to adopt standards related to traceability, e.g. UN/CEFACT traceability standards. Provide related capacity building/sub-regional and national workshops. Page 12

13 Thank you Dr. Somnuk Keretho UNNExT Advisory Committee Director, Institute for IT Innovation Kasetsart University, Bangkok

14 Speaker - Dr. Somnuk Keretho Somnuk Keretho is a faculty member of Computer Engineering Department, and the founding Director of Institute for IT Innovation (INOVA), a research and development institute of Kasetsart University, Thailand, specializing in ICT-enabled innovation, trade facilitation, traceability and e-logistics initiatives including National Single Window strategic planning and implementation, enterprise information architecture for e-government and e-business, business process analysis and improvement, data harmonization and modeling, ICT-related standards and interoperability, e-transaction related laws, and process-oriented quality software engineering. He has leded several ICT strategic projects at organizational, national and regional levels. For the past seven years, he has assisted Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, National Economic and Social Development Board, Ministry of Transport, Port Authority of Thailand, and Ministry of Agriculture in architecting Thailand Single-Window e-logistics related projects including its national e-logistics strategy, implementation plans, interoperability and standards, harmonization and simplification of trade and transport-related documents and procedures, automatic electronic-gate systems development for the Bangkok Port and the Leamchabang Sea Port, and other software development projects. Several of those projects are being aligned with some regional and international collaborations, in which Dr. Keretho has actively engaged mostly related to trade facilitation, single window and paperless trading initiatives through UNESCAP, UNECE, APEC, ASEAN and GMS. He has played several roles in catalyzing the creation of and actively contributing to the United Nations Network of Experts for Paperless Trade in Asia and the Pacific ( and providing several technical supports to the APEC Paperless Trading and ASEAN Single Window Initiatives. He is the main author of the UNNExT Business Process Analysis Guide, the UNNExT Data Harmonization Guide and the UNNExT Guide for Single Window Planning and Implementation. Page 14

Facilitating & Automating Trade in Agriculture: Challenges and emerging trends

Facilitating & Automating Trade in Agriculture: Challenges and emerging trends 26 May 2017, Bangkok, Thailand Maame Agyeben Trade Facilitation Unit, Trade, Investment and Innovation Division, United Nations