Traceability Value Chain - Opens on April 4, 2021

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The objectives of the TVC program are to:

• Enhance information sharing and increase the adoption of sustainable, voluntary information sharing systems that approach or achieve traceability to national or international standards across a sector or along a value chain;
• Assist participants to increase market access, substantiate product claims, or generate economic benefits for participants;
• Increase capacity to trace agriculture, food or seafood products and their associated attributes;
• Increase the ability of sectors and value chains to execute emergency response (e.g. food recall) procedures when required;
• Achieve cost savings through operation efficiency (e.g. reduce waste).

Anticipated benefits to the sector or value chain and/or province include:

• Enhanced emergency management capacity;
• Economic benefits from production efficiencies;
• Job creation; and
• Increased industry investment.

Eligible applicants include:

Provincial not-for-profit, incorporated association or other entity legally incorporated or formed under the laws of its jurisdiction that represents members in an agriculture, food or seafood sector.

Eligible sector organization applicants must have the following:

• An active 9-digit business registration number (BRN) or an active GST number / CRA Business Number;
• Representation by a registered not for profit, incorporated association or other recognized legal entity;
• Based and operating in BC; and
• File business income taxes in BC.

Provincial organizations representing the following entities can participate in sector organization projects:

• Members involved in agriculture, food and seafood producing, processing or handling activities (i.e. producers, processors, packagers, transporters, distributors, wholesalers, etc.);
• Alcoholic beverage processors (e.g. wine);
• Retail food operations;
• Food service operations (e.g. restaurants);
• Agricultural input suppliers (e.g. feed suppliers, fertilizer suppliers, pesticide suppliers, etc.); and
• Packaging manufacturers.

Eligible applicants must be capable of entering into legally binding contracts.

Ineligible applicants include:

• National sector organizations and non-BC based members of these organizations;
• Sector organization of tobacco and tobacco product producers, manufacturers or processors;
• Sector organization of pet food producers, manufacturers, processors or related facilities; and
• Sector organization of health and/or nutrition supplement processor.

Eligible expenditures and activities under the TVC program may include:

• Consultant services for project management, including planning and development;
• Research and pilot testing of solutions, including but not limited to: needs assessment, gap analysis, evaluation of information sharing technologies;
• Information technology infrastructure, equipment associated with developing/maintaining information sharing networks;
• Software development and customization costs associated with developing/maintaining information sharing networks;
• First time training costs associated with new equipment purchases or procedures related directly to the implementation of the project;
• First time costs related to traceability implementation (e.g. first-time registration with GS1 for unique company prefix number, excluding identification tags, labels);
• Costs associated with mock recall (see following pages);
• In-kind activities directly related to the development and implementation of the project; and
• Other activities as deemed eligible prior to being incurred based on project assessment by the Province.

Consultant fees and staff training costs combined may not exceed 25% of total project costs. Eligible in-kind contributions may not exceed 30% of total project costs.  

Eligible in-kind expenditures and activities: Sector organizations may put in-kind contributions (staff and/or resources) towards meeting the applicant contribution requirement. Please note:  

• In-kind contributions are expenditures, activities or resources provided by a sector organization in support of a traceability value chain project. Examples include:
  • labour or staff time
  • use of a building space for meetings or training
  • use of office supplies or resources
  • professional services 
• In-kind expenditures and activities must be identified in the application.
• Eligible in-kind expenditures cannot exceed 30% of the total eligible project costs.
• In-kind contributions, as with all expenditures, will require documentation to demonstrate costs incurred and to support the set value of the expenditure (e.g. payroll information and log of activities performed).

 Ineligible expenditures and activities under the TVC program may include:

• All project-related expenses incurred prior to the date of the funding approval letter;
• Costs associated with day to day operations of an applicant’s business or organization;
• Costs that have been reimbursed or eligible for reimbursement under another provincial, federal or municipal cost sharing or grant program (e.g. On-Farm Food Safety, Post-Farm Food Safety, Traceability Adoption, Livestock Tag Reader Rebate);
• GST, PST, or other items for which a refund or rebate is received;
• Ongoing costs of traceability (e.g. purchase of identification tags, labels, renewal fee of GS1 etc.);
• Costs to meet regulatory requirements;
• Market research (e.g. product, sector, customer);
• Costs associated with planning and creation of a value chain (e.g. partners facilitation/ coordination, agreements, business planning);
• Scientific testing;
• Food and beverage product research and development;
• Expansion of production capacity; and
• Expenditures and activities that result in facility level recording/storage of information without further information sharing between value chain partners.

Applications received during the application window will be assessed on a merit basis according to evaluation criteria established by the TVC Program, as listed below.

Evaluation Criteria

Applications will be evaluated against the following criteria and, as the case may be, other TVC applications:

• Develops new or expands current traceability information sharing system;
• Demonstrates close alignment with TVC program objectives;
• Shows effective, measurable and achievable performance measures;
• Presents well thought workplan activities and reasonable budget;
• Addresses training needs for implementation of the new system(s);
• Has the organizational capacity and resources to deliver and sustain success;
• Describes a mock recall plan and demonstrates capability to enhance emergency response for the value chain or sector;
• Has potential for expansion to or incorporation of new businesses (i.e., transferability); and
• Provides benefits to the sector or value chain and/or the Province of BC.

For sector organization applications:

• Displays a high-level of member support; and
• Demonstrates organizational capacity and clear plan to encourage member participation.

For value chain applications:

• Demonstrates the willingness of all partners to share information and enhance collective value derived from the project.