ICE CoT and Meridia
End-to-end certainty, one workflow
About ICE CoT
The ICE Commodity Traceability Service ("ICE CoT") is a technology platform provided by IBA to support traders and operators with their EU Deforestation Regulation ("EUDR") compliance obligations and the free-flowing trade in compliant cocoa and coffee to and from the EU.
ICE Benchmark Administration ("IBA") is a leading provider of regulated benchmarks and other data administration services.
EUDR compliance made simple
ICE CoT supports the submission, storage, testing, and sharing of due diligence information required under the EUDR. Specifically, ICE CoT collects and runs a series of reviews and tests on three key datasets:
- farm plot data,
- lawful production and compliance risk data, and
- physical flow traceability data
All tests are conducted in accordance with published methodologies to support users in demonstrating that relevant products can be traced back to farm plots and are free of deforestation, and have been lawfully produced, before entering the EU market.
All data, underlying systems, processes, evidence, and information uploaded to the platform must be available for inspection and verification under ICE CoT's data inspection and verification programme and will be audited by an appointed third-party auditor.
Discover ICE CoT platform
ICE CoT badges - powering trust in trade
Sellers may share the status of cocoa and coffee parcels that have all required data and passed all ICE CoT validation tests and reviews to prospective buyers via “badge”.
The seller may transfer specified data and the badge to a buyer who can build on the data within the ICE CoT platform, and provided all required new data is provided and validated, further share the ‘badge’ status of subsequent parcels to support tradability downstream.
ICE CoT also supports the due diligence statement submission to the EU Traces portal, where required by a user to import or export or supply products within the EU.
Verified data for smarter compliance
Meridia is an AgTech company ented specialising in field data solutions in complex agri-commodity supply chains, with extensive field and data experience in cocoa and coffee. Meridia's gold standard SaaS solution verifies data and identifies risks for sustainability monitoring and compliance in real time. Meridia Verify also contains actionable resolutions to mitigate every identified risk.
IBA has collaborated with Meridia to provide methodologies and software based on Meridia Verify for collecting and testing supply chain due diligence data within ICE CoT. Specifically, Meridia's methodologies and software check for data quality and consistency, deforestation and protected areas, alongside various other EUDR-relevant tests on ‘legalities’.
With the 'ICE CoT Green Lane', Meridia Verify supports the collection andpre-assessment of all relevant farm plot information to the standard required for the ICE CoT platform. This enables customers to manage the complex and nuanced process of preparing the large datasets needed to demonstrate EUDR compliance. Meridia and ICE CoT are planning an integration to automatically make that data available in ICE CoT .
Combined value proposition
Meridia and ICE CoT's collaboration is built upon the shared principles of (a) transparency, (b) technical rigour, and (c) supporting farmers and traders to access the European market whilst meeting the EUDR objectives.
Meridia Verify
Meridia Verify is the most comprehensive solution for risk assessment and verifying farm plot-level supply chain data.
For EUDR, it tests data quality, deforestation and legalities such as protected areas. It assesses the risks and provides a granular perspective, complete with risk scores and ‘resolutions’ to mitigate risks
ICE CoT
ICE CoT utilises Meridia Verify’ tests within its platform to validate the required farm plot data.
It tests the data against its own public methodologies, including automated proximity checks against deforestation, protected areas, using consistency and reasonability checks on farm plot data. ICE CoT validates farm plots that can be referenced as the source of parcels in the physical flow traceability data for cocoa or coffee.
Additionally, ICE CoT checks and tests that coffee and cocoa parcels are lawfully produced and are accompanied by physical flow traceability data, including information about aggregators, facilities, transport and countries
Key customer benefits
Tackle the data challenge - get ICE-CoT ready
Traders and Operators face a huge challenge in preparing their complex and varied supply chain data for the standards required by EUDR.
Meridia Verify will enable users to prepare their data sets and supply chains for EUDR and ICE CoT by identifying issues with farm plot data that would otherwise result in failing tests on the ICE CoT platform. Moreover, Meridia’s actionable resolutions and expert support team will help you and your field team understand and fix those issues, getting your data prepared and ICE CoT-ready to enable seamless validation of farm data on the ICE CoT platform
Dual expertise you can trust
Meridia’s deep field experience and supply chain data assessment expertise, combined with IBA’s technology and governance capabilities.
Consistent data requirements and tests
Best-in-class maps ICE CoT and Meridia use the same reference maps for deforestation (developed by Space Intelligence for ICE) and protected forests.
End-to-end certainty, one workflow
Meridia Verify and ICE CoT provide a joined-up approach to address EUDR compliance requirements. Meridia’s ICE CoT ‘Green Lane’ is designed to integrate seamlessly with the ICE CoT platform, reducing manual data cleaning and compliance preparation workload, and minimising the need to reformat or reinterpret data.
How Meridia and ICE CoT work together
Meridia Verify
Upstream data verification and risk assessment, granular farm plot data preparation
- Conducts farm- and plot-level risk assessments and verifies data quality and consistency, deforestation and protected areas, alongside various other EUDR-relevant tests on required farm plot data.
- Analyses large data sets for origin supply chains to flag gaps and risks at agranular level, providing actionable resolutions and support.
- Helps users identify and segregate compliant and non-compliant farm plot data.
ICE CoT
Upstream and downstream data collection and validation, full EUDR compliance support: seller and buyer due diligence ascertainment and trade enablement
- Collects and validates data uploaded to the platform on farm plots, lawful production and compliance risks, and physical flow traceability.
- Runs plausibility and rationality tests against farm plot, traceability data and lawful production information, while accumulating data for the risk assessment requirement of the EUDR and providing risk mitigation measures
- Regulation-grade control framework that includes rigorous membership criteria, data analysis and surveillance, grievance and complaints mechanisms, third-party inspection and verification programme, and independent platform assurance.
- Facilitates Due Diligence Statement submission and upstream management Supports downstream operators and traders with requirements to ascertain EUDR due diligence.