Case Study Details

 

Improving traceability and catch information in the fisheries value chain for MPEDA with a 15% rise in the exports

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Client Background

Client Background

The Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) was set up by an act of Parliament in 1972. The erstwhile Marine Products Export Promotion Council established by the Government of India in September 1961 was converged into MPEDA on 24th August 1972. MPEDA is given the mandate to promote the marine products industry with special reference to exports from the country. It is envisaged that this organization would take all actions to develop and augment the resources required for promoting the exports of “all varieties of fishery products known commercially as shrimp, prawn, lobster, crab, fish, shellfish, other aquatic animals or plants or part thereof and any other products which the authority may, by notification in the Gazette of India, declare to be marine products for the purposes of (the) Act”.

Objective

MPEDA wanted an automated web and mobile app to scale traceability in the seafood industry. The department wanted to digitize traceability of the catch purchase and export, ease out the process of purchase, connect with different facility units, and getting approval for export consignments.

  • Country
    India

  • Industry
    e-Governance

  • Solution
    Digital Transformation, Mobility

Challanges

Challenges

  • The entire MPEDA operations were manual right from catch auctioning, to purchase, to distribution to the facility units to getting the Catch Certificate approval
  • The old system of managing, tracking, and invoicing shipments through customs was time-consuming and labor-intensive
  • There was no mechanism to trace the origin of the catch
  • It involved a cumbersome spreadsheet with manual entry of details for each individual item
  • Lack of traceability gave rise to malpractices which were important to address to
  • Lack of validations gave rise to duplicate entries for vessels
  • Lack of a proper mechanism to trace the products, by-products, or wastage
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Solution

  • KCS was able to rope in MPEDA – one of the biggest Government projects, after submitting a tender and winning against other service providers. In order to thoroughly understand the client’s requirement, we personally visited the location at Cochin for a site survey where we coordinated with each and every stakeholder individually to understand their process
  • For MPEDA, the lack of real-time fisheries data can result in ill-advised sourcing decisions. Hence, they wanted to automate their traceability process and digitize the operations in compliance with the Catch Certificate guidelines
  • We provided them with an integrated web and mobile application which revolutionized the catch inventory management, traceability, purchase distribution, and taking approval for the export consignments
  • The interface is designed as user-friendly and responsive to their needs. As the seafood industry faces pressure to operate more efficiently and profitably, our solution helped them:
    1. Accelerate the processing time and productivity
    2. Automate the traceability process making it smooth and hassle-free
    3. Errors and duplication were eliminated
    4. Collaboration with 49 harbors and their field officers was made easy
    5. Catch Certificate Edit/Reject/ Cancel/ Pullback mechanism was generated
    6. Approval/rejection/ cancellation of any export assignment was done through a system
  • There was a total of five stakeholders who were going to use the system: Field Officers, Exporters, DEO, Administrators, and Mobile Users (Auctioneer/ Fisherman). The web application had 4 different logins/ dashboards for each stakeholder
  • The exporter login/dashboard was built to keep a check on consignments sent to foreign countries, the module helped exporters automatically match the shipments to the Catch Certificate guidelines
  • In case the purchase order was not added by the DEO or Auctioneer, they were easily able to add the purchases from various sources namely Auctioneer, agent, etc. and accurately keep a log of their purchase, processed product details, consignment details, and maintain the certificate approval/reject/cancel status
  • The Exporters can directly keep track of the products/ by-products at the facility unit through the system
  • They can also apply for the approval of the consignment to obtain a Catch certificate which is mandatory to unload the consignment at the designated Country/Harbor
  • The system allows the generation of EU & EU with ICCAT, NON-EU & NON-EU with ICCAT, and ICCAT certificate for exports and re-exports
  • The Data entry operators, designated at some selected harbors, fill in the Purchase Log Sheet on behalf of the Exporters using the web application. In absence of the DEO, even the Exporters can directly fill in the sheet through a web app
  • The mobile application developed for Auctioneer/Fishermen/or any other source of Catch Purchase made the entire process of auctioning the catch for purchasers/ exporters smooth
  • The Android and iOS mobile app helped them enter every information in detail right from the species of the catch, quantity, vessel details, exporter details, etc.
  • They can then directly assign the same to the Exporters who are purchasing the lot from them. The Catch log sheet, Purchase Log sheet can be directly created from the app purchase

Case Study Solution

Project Highlights

Catch log sheet

Catch log sheet

Purchase log sheet

Purchase log sheet

API integration to authenticate Vessels, Exporters, Field Officers, & Users

API integration to authenticate Vessels, Exporters, Field Officers, & Users

Inventory management & Vessel Related Inventory control

Inventory management & Vessel Related Inventory control

User management

User management

The product, by-product generation

The product, by-product generation

Online catch certificate approval process

Online catch certificate approval process

Payment API integration

Payment API integration

Data Security

Data Security

New format structured reports

New format structured reports

SMS and email Notifications/integration

SMS and email Notifications/integration

KCS Approach

KCS Approach

Experts at KCS developed a field officers login/Dashboard that helps the stakeholders to check, verify, and authorize the applications applied by the Exporters. Using this dashboard, the officers will carefully scrutinize the data before giving any approval. If the order details are correct, they confirm the same by adding their signatures to the generated certificate. Upon approval, the catch certificate pdf is generated with the sign of both the entities namely Exporters and Filed Officers, and is termed as complete. This PDF is a legal document that is compulsory to show at the destination.

Outcome

Outcome

  • In the fast-moving seafood industry, our real-time traceability solution has helped MPEDA and its stakeholders identify supply chain, business, and reputational risks as well as maintain the vessel and purchase material log entry accurately
  • The integrated automated mobile and web app have eased out the work for exporters as well as for Auctioneer/ Mobile Users to a great extent while increasing productivity, faster time to process, and reducing malpractices
  • The mobile app enables users to provide the right catch to the exporters at the right price and seamlessly make the purchase entry
  • Whereas, currently more than 1500 exporters use the browser-based web application on a daily basis to maintain correct logs of their purchase and export consignment details
  • The system collaborates the data from around 49 harbors in India and is used for the traceability of more than 10,000 shipments carrying more than 10 lakh MT seafood yearly
  • The application is free to download for use was developed as a part of the Prime Minister’s Digital India Program and has automated the catch, purchase, and export material traceability by almost 70%
  • The system underwent a security audit by a Certified Agency and the testing was also done by NIC before the final deployment
  • There is a significant 13.8% rise in the export industry which has accelerated the export process and our automated system has made the entire operations hassle-free
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