Have you ever questioned yourself about where the agro-products that you consume daily come from? Is there any label with enough and proper information on the agro-products that you consume? Aren’t you curious about what the traders have gone through to make these products available for you? Have you ever scanned the QR codes that come with the products while purchasing?

All the information consumers need before buying any agro-product and their traders’ stories is just a scan away!!! AgriClear recently launched the “Know your local traders, know your product” campaign which aims to showcase the stories of products and traders to end consumers with an objective to connect with them on personal levels. This will also aware consumers of smart labels and the importance of going through the labels before purchasing any products. It is done with the help of smart QR-coded labels which provides product information and behind-the-scene stories of those products to consumers. QR “Quick Response” codes are similar to barcodes that contain numerous dots and squares which represent different pieces of information. A lot of information can be added to this QR code. So, traders can provide additional information in the form of images, videos, etc. of agro-products that a normal label can’t.

Agro-traders record required information and print the smart labels using AgriClear Lite App. Information like packaging, processing, expiry dates, prices, and traders' story, along with products' health benefits and recipes are recorded. Consumers can then simply scan the available QR in the package through their smartphones to get these product details. AgriClear onboarded a number of traders like Himchuli Agro Mart, Kishan Khadya Udhyog, Sagar bees, Alpine Coffee Estate, Sanepa Dairy, etc for the campaign to showcase stories behind the trading of coffee, varieties of rice, ghee, roasted corn, wheat grass powder, etc and is working to onboard more of them.

While working with these different agro-traders and agro-enterprises, we got to know that the app is helping them to manage their product data and product management. They could also easily export their products to international markets because of availability of labels in the products. They recorded their key information transparently, making it easy for them to build trust among their consumers. In the short time of the pilot, we could see that consumer groups aged 40 and above, are not used to and unaware of QR codes on agro-products. Likewise, those aged 20-40 are used to scanning QR codes and are satisfied to know about the product that they are consuming in their daily life. There are many factors affecting the use of QR codes such as location, literacy rate of consumers, type of product, awareness among the consumers, and other. As consumers are getting aware of these informative QR codes, our vision to provide transparent and traceable information is also getting prominent.