John S. Connor and the Fishin’ Company reduce costs and potential errors

Baltimore, MD - Trace Register (TR), the global leader in full-chain seafood traceability, announces the first integrated and automated Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP) filings enabled by its Full-Chain Traceability (FCT) platform.

The Fishin’ Company, one of the largest seafood importers in the United States, and John S. Connor, a global leader of transportation and logistics management, plus many overseas processors/suppliers now use the TR FCT Platform to streamline SIMP filings and prepare for NOAA SIMP audits. 

“Trace Register’s primary goal is to help our customers such as The Fishin’ Company, integrate and automate SIMP filings to bring value to this process,” said Phil Werdal, CEO, Trace Register. “The future is now, and this revolutionary approach will benefit every member of the seafood supply chain to see improved efficiency, lower costs, and reduced risks.” 

The TR FCT Platform enables and allows processors/suppliers to input the critical first receiver data from fishing vessels or farm harvests and link this to their export products. An importer such as The Fishin’ Company then has a central platform to review and analyzes this data with the aid of TR CMCA (continuous monitoring and continuous auditing) to verify the information is complete and valid, and that all required supporting documents are available in case of an audit. The TR FCT Platform then facilitates electronic transmission of the data between The Fishin’ Company, and John S. Connor, enabling efficient SIMP filings to then be transmitted to CBP and NOAA by the customs broker.

Charting this process with The Fishin’ Company and John S. Connor highlighted the many challenges of manually entering, linking, and validating the massive amounts of data and supporting documents required for SIMP. It is incredibly labor-intensive and exponentially increases the opportunity for errors at all levels: the processor importer, and customs brokerage. The goal of the TR FCT Platform automation is to significantly increase accuracy and greatly reduce time and related costs.

“John S. Connor continues to pursue its future vision for utilizing new technologies to leverage data more efficiently with increased accuracy,” said Priscilla Royster, VP Compliance, John S. Connor. “We are excited to be part of these streamlined SIMP filings and support The Fishin’ Company in their compliance efforts. We also see potential opportunity in being able to automate required NOAA and Import Security Filings (ISF) that also involve large amounts of data and where data accuracy is vital.” 

“Continuous improvement through innovation and collaboration is core to our philosophy,” said Heath England, COO of The Fishin’ Company. “This streamlined process is a big move forward for the industry and we are excited for what our partnership with Trace Register holds for the future.”