Information management in agri-food chains

The establishment and management of information infrastructures in chains and beyond is a prerequisite for the implementation of the emerging comprehensive requirements on tracking, tracing and quality assurance in agriculture and the food sector. They support the guarantee of food safety and the focus on consumers' quality needs. The challenge for the sector is the agreement on, and the implementation of, appropriate information infrastructures. The paper discusses the issue by extending the classical enterprise information hierarchy by two additional information layers that cross the enterprise boundaries and form a sector-wide information network.