Under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), Australia is obliged to ensure that coral exports are sustainable, traceable, and legal. Until now, there has been no standardised way to evidence this across fishers, regulators, and buyers.
The Coral Traceability Solution (CTS) is designed to address that gap. It provides everyone in the supply chain with a single, reliable record of where coral came from and how it moved. The CTS combines marine-grade, live animal safe hardware with a secure digital platform. It is being developed for the Queensland Coral Fishery by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW)
The project is delivered across three phases:
* Engage and Design
The project is about to move into Pilot & Validate phase, scheduled to begin at the end of June 2026.
Wrapping Up: Build & Refine
Between March and May 2026, the focus has been on building the CTS web and mobile applications, integrating the underlying traceability platform, and validating the solution with industry and regulators against real-world workflows.
Throughout the Engage & Design and Build & Refine phases combined, the CTS team has engaged with the majority of QCF licenseholders and captive breeding operators through one-on-one conversations, site visits, and two industry drop-in sessions.
Representatives across regulatory and government stakeholder organisations have been engaged, including DCCEEW, the Queensland Department of Primary Industries, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, the Australian Fisheries Management Authority, Australian Border Force, and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.
This has helped shape a solution that meets CITES traceability requirements and is also shaping to become practical for day-to-day operations in the facility and at the desk.
During the two drop-in sessions, industry participants saw and provide feedback on the core workflows of the CTS, including tagging coral, fragmenting coral, breeding coral, receiving coral, updating inventory status, packing orders, generating Species Export Requirement (SER) records, and viewing the traceability journey of individual specimen.
The Current Phase: Pilot & Validate
The Pilot & Validate phase will be during June and August 2026. This is when industry participants and regulators will have hands on experience of the CTS in a live operational setting for the first time.
The pilot is scheduled to begin at the end of June 2026 for approximately one month Participants will be using the solution in parallel. During the pilot, participants will:
Regulators will use the solution to view specimen and orders across participating fishers, validating regulatory oversight workflows, and reporting capability ahead of national rollout.
Structured feedback loops will occur during the pilot - including check-ins with participants, on-site support where needed. The project team will respond to issues or problems during the pilot rather than logging them for later.
Next Steps
Once the pilot wraps up, the CTS team will consolidate feedback to refine the platform ahead of implementation in late 2026.
The project team will hold industry drop-in session in to share a pilot update to the broader industry. If you are not directly participating in the pilot, this will be your opportunity to see the solution in action and have your say.
For more information on the Coral Traceability Solution, visit OriginsNext.
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