Chain of custody models: which one does your buyer need?

A chain of custody is the documented path a product takes from producer to buyer, including every handoff, every change of ownership and every point where lots are combined or split. How strictly you keep lots apart decides what you can say about where a product came from.

The common models

• Identity preserved. Product from a single source, such as one farm or one cooperative, is kept physically separate all the way to the buyer, who can name the exact origin.
• Segregated. Compliant product from several known sources is kept separate from everything else, but may be mixed with other compliant product. Every unit is compliant, but it can't be traced to one farm.
• Mass balance. Compliant and non-compliant product are physically mixed, and the books track how much compliant volume went in. The claim is about volumes on paper, not the physical product.
• Book and claim. Certificates are traded separately from the physical product, and there is no physical link at all.

What regulation accepts

Origin regulations such as the EUDR are concerned with the physical product. Every input in a shipment has to trace back to known plots that meet the requirements. In practice, mixing compliant product with product of unknown origin, as mass balance allows, does not work for EUDR-covered goods, because the unknown share makes the whole lot non-compliant.

That leaves segregation as the workable minimum for most exporters. Identity preservation is worth the extra cost when a buyer pays a premium for single-origin claims.

Where chains break

Custody rarely breaks at the farm. It breaks at aggregation points: the buying centre, the warehouse and the processing plant, where lots are combined, re-bagged or blended. Each of those steps needs a record showing which input lots went into which output lot, with weights that add up.

• Give every lot an ID that survives re-bagging, such as a label, a seal number or a QR code.
• Record transfers on both sides. The sender logs a dispatch, and the receiver confirms what arrived.
• Reconcile weights at every step, and explain losses such as drying, sorting and processing yield.
• Seal containers and record the seal numbers, so the last handoff before export is as clear as the first.

A custody record that holds together through these points becomes a lasting asset. It answers this year's due diligence questions and also the different questions the next regulation will ask.