Los Angeles-based Sea Warden and Copenhagen-based PSQR, two traceability technology companies, have agreed to form a strategic partnership to disruptively create value for aquaculture companies with an initial focus on shrimp and prawns.
How Does the Partnership Benefit Aquaculture Companies?
Sea Warden tackles critical data gaps within the aquaculture companies and the industry as a whole by leveraging satellites, AI, and cloud computing to monitor global aquaculture activity. At the same time, EPCIS-based PSQR’s Saga product captures data across any number of critical tracking events at the KDE (Key Data Element) level.
Together, Sea Warden and PSQR will be able to create full end-to-end traceability through their complementary products beginning at the shrimp farms, most commonly found in remote locations in India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Ecuador.
“The stakes are high. Mislabeling enables the sale of illegal, unreported, and unregulated products which would otherwise be difficult to sell, thus reducing the health of fish populations. Mis-labeling also enables the substitution of higher-value products with lower-value products that are less healthy, a situation that undermines consumer purchasing behaviours aimed at supporting sustainable fisheries,” said Ron Volpe, Chief Commercial Officer at PSQR.
“Satellite monitoring has been groundbreaking for adjacent sectors: forestry and agriculture, and has great potential to increase seafood traceability down to the farm level. Annual farm audits are the status quo currently, but consumers are asking for more. Increasing traceability without overburdening the producers is solvable through satellite monitoring. With just farm locations, we can generate Key Data Elements for 12 months (or more) of historic production activity, and this data is unbiased, and analysis ready. Not only can we help a producer identify and resolve productivity and sustainability issues; by integrating with systems like SAGA, our data can reduce risk by raising alerts on potential supply chain issues,” said Zack Dinh, Co-Founder and CEO of Sea Warden.
A Unique Traceability Technology Combined
The combination of EPCIS-based technology and satellite tracking technology is unique in the traceability space. Sea Warden and PSQR are excited about the opportunity to collaborate to deliver a unique offering capable of giving consumers improved confidence that the seafood they are consuming is properly labelled.