Olivia pushed back her chair and frowned at the email at the top of her inbox. “Your farm has been randomly selected for an audit…”
With a sigh, she opened her compliance portal and scanned through for any items needing attention. Just last week she had reviewed the policies that had come up for renewal. The AI had pointed out occupational safety and health changes that were needed, and she had ordered the three new fire extinguishers that it recommended.
It looked like all the agrichemical registers and movement records were up to date. The agrichemical purchases flowed in automatically from Xero, and usage records came from the farm software mobile app that Olivia had connected.
“Ok”, Olivia said to herself, “we’ve got this”. She clicked the button to invite the auditor to review the farm compliance records.
Audits. Almost every farm, orchard, or vineyard has them.
We demonstrate food safety practices, hazard and critical control point awareness, staff training. We add compliance with industry and government requirements, traceability and movement licences. We may show ethical people management and trade practices, usually proved through our policies, record keeping, and relevant questionnaires. We add environmental and sustainability practices.
Annually, biennially, or every three years an auditor appears. Often multiple auditors – one for each scheme where the farm or growing business is a member. Sometimes, unannounced audits are needed. Each auditor checks prioritised policies and controls, and records the corrective actions required and improvement recommendations.
It’s little wonder that farmers and growers rank compliance as one of their most significant and frustrating challenges. A 2025 study undertaken for AUSVEG, the peak body representing Australian vegetable, potato, and onion growers indicated that compliance costs represented an average of 4% of participants operating costs – implying a cost of $213 million AUD across their membership for 2025.
Compliance costs are more than just record keeping. Compliance costs include opportunity costs for profit given up meeting environmental outcomes, and capital investment in infrastructure.
However, the time spent keeping records is still significant. That time is even more significant when it is evenings invested ahead of an audit, making sure that policies and registers are all up to date and the right evidence is going to be available for the auditor. And the stress of finding evidence on the day for an auditor can be worse!
There may be hope.
As farms become more connected, sensors and hardware pick up some of the observational tasks, and AI brings text analysis, voice recording and organisational skills, might a farming organisation use digital technologies to become “audit ready” at any day of the year?
Policies will still need reviewing to ensure they are up to date with the latest rules and the current practice of the business. Even there, an automated reminder and an AI pre-check may lighten the load.
A structured repository for farm or orchard business data might enable forms to be pre-populated, and tools to draw gaps to the grower’s attention. Remote sensing might provide evidence without the need for manual evaluation.
In this future, an organisation moves from spending weeks preparing for audits, to focusing on managing risk areas and improving audits.
In turn, auditors or inspectors might make use of smarter tools and AI as well. When an auditor’s tools can analyse the data available, the audit becomes more of a conversation about how the farm team intends to address the risk areas and improvements the auditor has found.
The shift is not just technological
Many of the technologies we have mentioned have been available for some time, though there have been challenges getting them to work together.
The shift is organisational and systemic. Its moving from seeing compliance as an event (the audit) to an ongoing process of improvement.
Executed well, that ongoing improvement process helps manage business risk and find opportunities as well.
Your thoughts?
Our latest white paper explores the technologies and practices making this possible.
Reach out to us with your comments, ideas, or wish list.
