Finnish Food on Export Markets – Data Helps to Get there
Blog Series: Food Data and Traceability, part 3.
Finnish food is high quality, traceable and produced to demanding standards. But when export negotiations begin, buyers increasingly want this proven in data as standardised information they can compare and verify.
Data is an export asset that hasn't yet been fully leveraged
GS1 research has identified concrete commercial opportunities where sustainability traceability is the deciding factor: antibiotic-free meat for Asian markets, grain origin traceability for individual products, organic product sustainability claims for premium channels. In each case, the product exists and demand exists but the export chain requires sustainability information to be available in a globally readable, trusted format.
The challenge is consistent across sectors: the information exists, but it is not in a standardised form that travels seamlessly across borders and systems.
Global buyers don't look at PowerPoint decks. They look at data: structured, comparable, repeatable.
GS1 standards: a shared language for world markets
GS1 standards are used in more than 150 countries. They are the common language of trade and industry for product identification, data exchange and traceability. When a food producer stores its sustainability information according to GS1 standards, that data is automatically readable in global systems – without bespoke translation projects or custom integrations.
The Food Sustainability Data Model, developed within the Food Data Finland programme, is built on exactly these global standards. Its carbon footprint data transmission model was internationally unique and ultimately became the basis for a global GS1 standard. Finnish companies did pioneering work here.
Four data elements that buyers want to see
The Food Sustainability Data Model identifies four core information areas that international buyers and retail groups increasingly require:
- Origin data – where raw materials come from, which farm, which country
- Packaging material data – recyclability, materials, ecomodulation
- Certifications and pack marks – organic, ecolabels, fair trade, voluntary schemes
- Carbon footprint – product-level, calculated using agreed methodologies
When this information is structured in one place, the export team doesn't need to gather it manually for every commercial negotiation.
Competitive advantage isn't built on products alone
The strength of Finnish food lies in its origin, purity and traceability. But that strength is only realised if it can be verified. Trineria provides a traceability data platform that connects information from different sources. That enables supply chain data to be available in the right format at the right time, including on international markets.
The shared GS1 standard already exists. Trineria's data platform is the tool that makes data flow through it across the entire chain.