The Global Language of Business

Brazil Plant Traceability Case Study

Introduction

Legado das Águas, the largest privately-owned reserve of Atlantic Forest in Brazil, teamed up with GS1 Brazil on the Green Code Project. The aim of the project was to automate the tracing of trees in the reserve. Trees in the reserve were tagged with a label containing a QR code into which a GTIN, Lot no. and location of the tree were encoded. Seeds from these tagged trees were collected and brought to the Legado das Águas plant nursery. Once the seedlings have grown to plants and are ready to be sold, a label is applied to them with a QR code that identifies the tree in the reserve from which they came. Using GS1 Digital Link technology, this label can be scanned with a smartphone to identify the origin and characteristics of the parent tree meaning that the plants have full traceability. This project demonstrated the application of GS1 standards in the realm of environmental traceability. Before automation, traceability was carried out manually and from now on, everything is done in an automated way, speeding up the process and reducing the risk of human error.

GS1-Brazil-Plant-Traceability-from-seedling-to-tree
Plant traceability from seedling to tree using QR codes and GS1 Digital Link. Image from GS1 Brazil.

Overview 

  • Country: Brazil
  • Type of product: Plants
  • Data carrier: QR Code
  • Data encoded
    • GTIN
    • Lot no.
    • GLN