Collect once, reuse across the chain: introducing LIFE SEED

Growers often receive overlapping requests for the same sustainability information. LIFE SEED's project baseline found many individual fields repeated five to ten times across different buyers and certifiers. Requests also use different formats, which makes reuse across systems harder.

LIFE SEED aims to reduce that duplication. We're building a shared data structure so growers enter the same sustainability information less often and buyers receive more consistent data.

LIFE SEED is a multi-year project starting in 2026, co-funded by the LIFE Programme of the European Union. Simvia coordinates it, alongside five partners in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

This article is the project's introduction. We'll update it as the work progresses.

What is LIFE SEED?

SEED stands for Scalable European infrastructure for Environmental Due diligence and compliance. The short version: one questionnaire, one set of definitions, and connections to the systems that already hold verified farm data.

LIFE SEED at a glance

Programme: LIFE, Circular Economy and Quality of Life sub-programme

Duration: Multi-year, starting in 2026

Total budget: Approximately €1.9 million

Coordinator: Simvia BV

Partners: Bakker Barendrecht, Greenyard, Gemüsering, Vogelaar Vredehof, Mérieux NutriSciences – Blonk

Pilot countries: Netherlands, Belgium, Germany

Sector: Fresh fruit and vegetables

Simvia leads project management and builds the technical infrastructure used in the pilots. Project governance includes grower representation, while an external Stakeholder and Expert Group reviews the design as the work progresses.

Why this matters across the chain

The same fragmented process creates extra work on both sides of the chain.

Our platform is already used by more than 250 traders and processors. Growers and producer organisations often provide the same certificates and figures in different formats. Buyers then receive fragmented spreadsheets and PDFs that are difficult to compare, aggregate or check. Both sides spend time on work the current process repeats.

Our partners work with the same challenge. Bakker Barendrecht, Greenyard, Gemüsering and Vogelaar Vredehof send and receive these requests every day. The duplication is the starting condition LIFE SEED is designed to address. LIFE funding lets the partners test a shared approach at a scale none could reach alone.

What LIFE SEED will build

One harmonised data structure.

A shared data structure for carbon, biodiversity and social indicators, with defined units, system boundaries and calculation rules. Relevant environmental indicators will align with the EU Product Environmental Footprint method and draw on the FreshProducePEFCR, an industry methodology developed as far as possible in alignment with PEF guidance. The project will test how the same underlying data can support different reporting, due-diligence and policy workflows with less repeated collection.

Connections to the systems that already hold the data.

Certification schemes, laboratories and farm management systems already hold much of the information used in buyer workflows. SEED will connect at least five of these through APIs, so verified information flows automatically instead of being re-entered.

Automated checks.

Software that maps uploaded evidence to the right indicator, spots duplicates, flags values that look implausible and identifies gaps. The point is to catch problems while they can still be fixed, and to give the grower a constructive correction rather than a rejection.

Feedback that reaches the farm.

Baselines and targets per supplier, with specific recommendations on where a flower strip would help or where input use differs from comparable farms. The aim is to turn reporting into useful feedback at farm level.

Six partners across the fresh produce chain

Six organisations, bringing together expertise from across the fresh produce supply chain.

• Simvia (Netherlands), coordinator. Compliance and sustainability data platform for agri-food supply chains. Leads project management and builds the platform the pilots run on.

• Bakker Barendrecht (Netherlands). One of the country's largest fresh produce companies, connecting thousands of growers to Dutch and international retail. Leads the monitoring of socio-economic impacts.

• Greenyard (Belgium). One of Europe's leading fresh produce companies. Its European footprint is central to testing whether the model transfers beyond the pilot countries.

• Gemüsering (Germany). One of Germany's largest fresh produce traders, running vertically integrated chains into domestic and EU-wide retail. Anchors the German pilot.

• Vogelaar Vredehof (Netherlands). A top-fruit specialist in apples and pears. Brings a second crop type and production system into the pilots. That's how we test whether the data structure holds up beyond one commodity.

• Mérieux NutriSciences – Blonk (Netherlands). Sustainability consultancy and research group specialising in agricultural life cycle assessment and carbon footprinting. Leads the environmental KPI methodology and supports alignment with relevant EU footprinting methods.

What the pilots aim to achieve

Within the pilot supply chains, the project targets:

• 50% fewer duplicate data requests at farm level, and 30% less time per reporting cycle for buyers.

• A 10% reduction in carbon footprint intensity, in kg CO₂e per kg of product at farm gate, against a baseline set at the start.

• A 12% increase in an aggregate biodiversity index covering habitat share, crop diversity and non-productive land. We should be straightforward about this one. Biodiversity pilots haven't run yet, so it's an evidence-based projection to be validated during the project rather than a result we already hold.

• More than 1,000 farms and suppliers taking part by the end, starting from around 200 in the first phase.

All of it is measured against baselines set at the start, using one method across every partner and country. Using different methods makes sustainability data harder to compare. SEED uses one consistent approach across the pilots.

Project timeline

The schedule below is indicative and will be confirmed once the grant agreement is signed.

• 2026. Project starts. Governance set up, the harmonised data structure drafted with all partners, baselines and monitoring framework defined.

• 2027. Planned first live data collection with growers. First connections to certification schemes and data sources go live. Pilots begin in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

• 2028. Automated checks running in live chains. Feedback to farms and benchmarking for buyers in operation. Mid-project review.

• Towards the end of the project. Pilots scaled beyond 1,000 farms and suppliers. Replication toolkit published. Final results and public summary report.

Following the project

We'll publish updates, outputs and results as the project runs, including the public summary report at the end. If you'd like to follow along, or if you're a grower, buyer or certification body interested in taking part in the pilots, get in touch.

Co-funded by the European Union

LIFE SEED is co-funded by the LIFE Programme of the European Union.

Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CINEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.