The Government of Victoria in Australia has announced a new programme to strengthen the citrus export industry and improve traceability in fruit supply chains.

Named Citrus Australia, the new programme will receive financial backing of A$200,000 ($131,147) from Agriculture Victoria.

Victoria Minister for Agriculture Jaclyn Symes said: “Our traceability practices are crucial to building confidence in our horticulture sector, creating a shared understanding about how our food is produced.”

“Our citrus industry continues to shine, with exports growing steadily year on year. I commend the Victorian citrus industry for taking this proactive step that will provide benefits for them and our trading partners.”

Citrus Australia aims to improve the identification of the origins of fruit and protect against the counterfeiting of this information. It also addresses secure market access and rapid food recalls within supply chains.

The programme appointed technology companies Laava and Trust Provenance to deliver digital fingerprint labelling.

Laava will provide a secure digital form of product identification while Trust Provenance will provide blockchain technology.

The technology will show traceability in horticultural businesses in a real-time environment by using unique codes to track fruit across the market chain.

The government anticipates that growers, businesses and consumers will benefit from a more transparent food traceability system.

In the last financial year, Victoria exported approximately 104,000t of citrus, worth A$162m ($106m). Citrus Australia will help meet the government’s goal of increasing food and fibre exports to A$20bn ($13.1bn) by 2030.

The government will implement the programme over seven months during the 2020 citrus harvest, from early May to the end of July.

Citrus Australia chief executive Nathan Hancock said: “International customers are vital to the future success of the industry and we’re excited to lead this project, which will help secure existing and future market access and protect our reputation of growing the world’s best fruit.”