ECOS
Due to the location and history of South Africa, we have an extremely diverse set of products, factories, and processes. We also have a complex food and export legislative system with different authorities (>6 religious, state and authorised signatories) with overlap between authorities as often we work on similar products and the same locations. Due to our endemic diseases, our rich diversity of wildlife, and animal health system we need to have a systems approach to disease risk mitigation and international trade in animal products. We must therefore focus on commodity-based trade and compartmentalisation if we are to remain internationally relevant when it comes to trade in animal products.
South Africa is busy with a project called LITSSA (Livestock Identification and Traceability System South Africa) which is divided into two main parts.
- Identification and traceability of cattle (for now) from birth to abattoir.
- Identification and traceability of products from abattoir to export or retail
The Western Cape is developing and piloting ECOS as we have over 160 export factories and experience in many different types of production processes as well as retail export. We are hoping ECOS will become the national system for composite and animal-based products.
ECOS is a strategic information system for zoonotic diseases and foodborne pathogens.
South Africa currently has no electronic system, which tracks the movement of animal products, that are to be exported in line with the guidelines of the Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations.
An electronic data management system – Export Control Office System (ECOS) – is being developed by the Western Cape Government to address these deficiencies and create a platform that supports market access and export certification in line with global standards.
South Africa has a Ecert system that is linked to the plant hub and ECOS will “talk” to the rest of the world via that system to create a unified international view of South African products.
The ECOS system is to prevent foodborne illnesses and facilitate science based trade.
ECOS is a cloud hosted, web-application for electronic export management. The system is being developed by the Western Cape Government and is completely government owned. It is developed to support trade by ensuring that all export compliance information is located in one place that is easy to navigate and well defined.
The goal of ECOS is to
- prevent foodborne illnesses and facilitate science based trade
- simplify and expedite the clearance of the consignment at the point of entry or the point of control
- provide for accurate identification of the consignment being certified and the parties involved in the production and issuance of the certificate
- facilitate the importing country’s assessment of the validity of the certificate
- minimize the potential for fraud
ECOS will form part of a Single Window facility providing trade facilitation that allows parties involved in trade and transport to lodge standardized information and documents with a single entry point to fulfill all import, export, and transit-related regulatory requirements where individual data elements should only be submitted once electronically.
ALL clients that export a product or a commercial live animal must register on Ecert and ECOS if they want to export from the Western Cape.
If you would like to access the system to see information about your company, you will need to do the following in preparation:
Follow the getting started guideline on https://ecert.co.za/getting-started/ and complete steps one and two of the guide
- register as a new user
- register a business
For more information on this process visit: https://cbr.ecert.co.za/ and https://ecert.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/2-Central-Business-Register.mp4
To register on ECOS
- Go to https://mygovapps.westerncape.gov.za and register a user account by clicking the external user login button
- Send doa.ecos@westerncape.gov.za an email indicating the company name, the email of the registered users as well as any factories and farms those users need to be linked to
Go to our training system and register a user account https://mygovapps-training.westerncape.gov.za/ by clicking on the external user login button. Once completed send doa.ecos@westerncape.gov.za an email indicating the register users’ email as well as any factories that need to be created in the training environment.
In ECOS’s design we define:
- Recipes (based on economic value (HS code), species content, processing, and storage conditions)
- Products (recipes, batch codes and weight)
- Locations (GPS, type of facility, ownership, and accreditations)
- Businesses (Ownership of locations and products)
- Export certificate templates (Target markets and products involved)
Each of the design elements are meant to have multiple activities or attributes that can be attached to them such as tests (location tests, such as audits or surveillance sampling, product tests such as a specific product bacteriology or antemortem inspection) and general attachments (PDF/Images)
Support for ECOS can be obtained by contacting doa.ecos@westerncape.gov.za
There are also playlists for clients and officials
Playlists for Clients
Playlist for Officials
Webinar
Towards an enhanced traceability in the animal protein food system in South Africa -ECOS
Steering committee meetings
30 July 2020
Project phases
- Establishment of basic structures and public testing starting on the 18 September 2020 and ending on the 16 October 2020 in the pig industry of the Western Cape.
- Development, testing and release of government office management features released on the 3 November 2021
- Development, testing and release of inspection application forms and the generation of movement templates from ECOS expected release 31 March 2022
- Enhancements of previous phases based on user feedback release expected 31 June 2022
- Dairy industry rollout of Electronic movement permits expected April 2023
- Marketing features April 2023
Current features
Establishment Details and Establishment Products
Reception can update Establishment details, establishment owners and or representatives can capture their blueprint products on ECOS, this include the core blue print product which defines the product ingredients, processes and brand, they can also indicate the potential target market(s) for the product, once captured the Technical Advisory will either approve or reject the blue print product, they will also approve or reject the potential target market(s), the establishment owner/representatives can view the reason for the decision on the system.
Permits and Bills
Clients apply for export permits via email, the details of the permits issued will be captured in ECOS, client bills will be generated and issued from ECOS, clients can acknowledge or dispute the bill online or if the client visit’s the Milnerton office in person the Reception can capture the bill acknowledgement/dispute on behalf of the client. Reception will capture the details of the bill payment on ECOS (bills settled in person, client made payment by credit or debit card).
Movement permits are generated electronically and have QR codes for verification preventing fraud and increasing the speed of application processing. This feature is being phased in based on demand from industries.
Invoices
Finance officials will have a view of the statuses of client bills (issued, acknowledged, paid, not yet paid) they will be able to determine the clients that require invoices. Invoices are issued from the accounting system, and the details of the invoices issued are captured on ECOS as well as the details of the invoice payments.
Non-Conformances
Officials can log non-conformances identified and set the due date by when the client need to correct the non-conformance. o Clients can acknowledge or dispute the non-conformance and also upload evidence of non-conformance correction.
Inquires
ECOS enable clients to easily raise any issues or concerns they might have, queries can be logged online, it will be handles via online chat feature allowing the client to view the responses from the officials in real-time.
