“The great advantage of JoinData is that the data stays with the source.”
Mariska de Rooij is a Business Analyst and Project Manager of Information Management and Technology at Vion. Vion is an international food company with production locations in the Netherlands and Germany. It slaughters pigs and cattle, but also produces vegetarian alternatives. Vion has been involved in JoinData since January 2019. Vion sees great opportunities for improved chain efficiency through the exchange of data across the entire pig chain. The company wanted to exchange more data in the pork chain. “Which means you quickly end up with JoinData,” Mariska says.
Last year, Vion started with a ‘proof of concept’ to test if the JoinData system meets Vion’s wishes. Experiments have been carried out with the exchange of data on, for example, slaughter and data on feed. That process has been successfully completed and data is now actually being exchanged.
Exchanging data is not just a matter of submitting a list of data that Vion would like to exchange and issuing an authorization by the pig farmer. “It is chiefly a reciprocal process, you give some and you get some. For each item of data, it is examined whether the data can be exchanged or whether something still needs to be developed for it, and whether the parties actually want to exchange this data.”
Vion also delivers data via JoinData. “That goes without saying,” says Mariska. “As far as we are concerned, JoinData is the digital highway over which all data exchange can take place.
The exchange of data is not yet live for all pig farmers. The system is currently being developed and tested with a group of pig farmers. So far, the experiences are good. “The great thing is that it works with standard data in a standard way. Because JoinData has not yet been used in pig farming, many standards still need to be developed. It requires a lot from the sector and from us.”
Data exchange is not new for pig farming, but until now, it has mainly been done on a one-to-one basis and not yet at chain level. “I hope that in the future, JoinData will become more widely known. The platform works very easily for the user and we see the added value. We’d like to scale up the sector. That means more pig farmers, more data and more suppliers of data from the pig industry. JoinData is an independent party and that also makes it easier for us to ask for permissions. I can imagine that it might otherwise arouse suspicion if large parties, including Vion, ask the pig farmer for certain data. The big advantage of JoinData is that it is independent and that the data stays with the source, so information from the farmer stays with the farmer. He authorizes who may use it and who may not. It’s well structured and well organized.”
