The electronic National Vendor Declaration (eNVD) has this week been launched by the Integrity Systems Company.

The Integrity Systems Company is the wholly-owned subsidiary of Meat & Livestock Australia established in May to oversee all of Australia’s red meat integrity systems under a single management structure.

Producers can now use the eNVD to transfer Livestock Production Assurance (LPA) information, as well as animal health declarations, Meat Standards Australia (MSA) declarations and National Feedlot Accreditation Scheme (NFAS) documents, electronically.

Integrity Systems Company Chief Executive Officer, Dr Jane Weatherley, said the introduction of the eNVD is a major development in a broad program to utilise more digital tools and technologies in the red meat industry.

“Australian producers have a strong reputation for delivering quality red meat into more than 100 international markets backed up by food safety, product integrity and traceability. This is enhanced by our world-leading systems including the NVD,” Dr Weatherley said.

“A fully functional eNVD platform will make life simpler for producers. It will reduce time spent completing livestock assurance and health declarations and managing historical NVDs for auditing, reporting and administrative purposes. It will also ensure the latest NVD is being used.”

Dr Weatherley said the eNVD system can be used to submit and retrieve eNVDs for property to property movements, or movements to feedlots, saleyards and abattoirs.

The LPA eNVD is free and available from the LPA Service Centre website at https://lpa.nlis.com.au/.

For individual supply chains that do not yet accept eNVDs, it can be printed out. Its use is not compulsory and producers can continue to use paper NVDs which cost $40 (GST inclusive) per book or eDecs, Dr Weatherley said.

“In choosing to use it, producers will ensure they are providing information that meets the latest market requirements,” Dr Weatherley said.

“It’s not just on-farm where we’ll see the benefits. For feedlots, saleyards and processors, it reduces the likelihood of inaccuracies in information received from producers, and makes the information easier to store and retrieve. Most importantly, it provides greater visibility of the incoming livestock’s details before the stock arrive, enabling more efficient management.

“Overall, it will make the sharing of critical information simpler, quicker and more accurate for the entire supply chain. This supports the promise we’re making to our customers – and means that we can stand by what we sell.”

Since early 2017, producers in specific supply chains have been able to access the Aglive licensed commercial software versions of the eNVD that adheres to the national eNVD Standards endorsed by SAFEMEAT.

Source: Integrity Systems Company. A list of licensed software providers is available at www.mla.com.au/envd.