Fresh produce software helps companies with traceability, inventory, and supply chain management. These companies include growers/packers/shippers, distributors, and processors. We used our advanced review methodology to test the market’s most popular fresh produce systems, which we reviewed below.
- Famous Software: Best Overall
- Produce Pro: Best for Growers, Packers, and Shippers
- Visual Produce: Best for Wholesalers
- Food Connex: Best for Processors
- Acctivate Inventory Management: Best for Distributors
- Produce Inventory Control System (PICS): Another Good Option
1 Famous Software - Best Overall
Why we chose it: We made Famous Software our top choice because of its ERP system built for the fresh produce industry. Its 8.8 score reflects its variety of effective modules, including WMS, BI, and accounting. The inventory management feature allows growers to track yield percent from their crop and products from the field to the warehouse to final sale. Companies can also trace products to pallets and single cases, enabling efficient quality monitoring and regulation compliance.
We also found Famous Software’s sales management module effective for perishable goods companies. The module updates inventory levels in real-time so sales can provide accurate stock levels for customers. Information like client buying habits and past orders is stored in a database to help make selling easier and prices easily referenced. On top of this, Famous Software also offers a suite of mobile apps for on-the-go processes like quality control and receiving.
Unfortunately, Famous Software does not release public pricing information, so businesses must contact their sales team for a quote. Also, the system can only be installed on-premise, which may turn away companies looking for a cloud-based solution.
2 Produce Pro - Best for Growers, Packers, and Shippers
Why we chose it: We gave Produce Pro by Aptean an 8.6 because it’s an all-in-one ERP solution that can handle the needs of large companies that integrate growing, packing, and shipping. Specifically, its lot-level traceability helps companies retain complete records of all lot updates, including costs, materials used, and fees. This helps growers and packers maintain compliance with requirements such as Country of Origin and the Produce Traceability Initiative.
We also like Produce Pro’s inventory and delivery management tools to optimize all the grower/packer/shipper company stages. Its warehouse management capabilities streamline the picking, packing, and loading processes, allowing for fast order processing and real-time inventory tracking across all storage facilities. With its BI and reporting modules, businesses can analyze market trends and optimize pricing strategies using in-house data. Because of the many complex features, we wouldn’t recommend Produce Pro for smaller businesses like independent growers and packers.
3 Visual Produce - Best for Wholesalers
Why we chose it: We like Visual Produce best for produce wholesalers and distributors because of its strong traceability and order fulfillment tools, earning an 8.5 score. Its extensive traceability features, including real-time product tracking, lot number, supplier, warehouse slot, and delivery location, can lessen the cost of recalls. It can even tell companies which products were positioned next to the recalled item for cross-contamination cases.
Visual Produce’s order fulfillment and picking tools allow efficient warehouse management and shipping, useful for wholesalers with large inventories. It offers a comprehensive dashboard with logistical tools that include route analysis, job assignments, and picker teams to streamline day-to-day operations. We also like its one-pass picking methodology to optimize picker routes through the warehouse for large orders. Visual Produce can be deployed cloud-based or on-premises, allowing for deployment flexibility
4 Food Connex - Best for Processors
Why we chose it: After demoing the product, we found Food Connex ERP best for fresh produce processors. Its production tools are made specifically for food processing, as companies can view work orders with specific weights to be cut and packed. It also allows for more accurate production yields by eliminating manual entry for metrics like shipped weights for each order, making order entry more efficient.
We also like that Food Connex supports lot traceability, so companies can view inventory by lot details like remaining shelf life and date received. Additionally, management can view costs for each lot to analyze profitability, which can help extract more granular data. Food Connex offers seamless integration with QuickBooks for accounting and Zebra for barcode scanning. One downside is it lacks multi-slot capabilities, which could be difficult for businesses with complex warehouse setups.
5 Acctivate Inventory Management - Best for Distributors
Why we chose it: We included Acctivate Inventory Management because of its strong inventory and multichannel sales modules that suit the needs of fresh produce distributors. It supports industry-specific features like catch weight pricing, lot and serial number tracking, and expiration date monitoring. These help produce distributors sell products by the pound or kilogram and quickly perform recalls if needed.
Acctivate also provides a cohesive order management module for orders placed from all sales channels - from eCommerce sites to EDI orders. Businesses can select prices based on weight, catch weight, or by unit. For flexibility, prices can be automatically selected for standard, promotional, or customer-specific. Acctivate Inventory Management can be integrated with QuickBooks for full ERP functionality, syncing accounting with inventory management. However, QuickBooks is the only accounting system that can be integrated, so companies using a different system won’t be able to sync data.
6 Produce Inventory Control System (PICS) - Another Good Option
Why we chose it: Produce Inventory Control System (PICS) by WaudWare is another good option for produce distributors and growers/packers/shippers. The system allows for complete traceability on all perishable goods, which helps create smooth recall processes. We also like its pricing flexibility, as it handles real-world costing to get current prices.
We found PICS’s inventory management module also effective for produce companies. It can handle inventories of any size and supports unlimited warehouses for larger companies. Other features include buying, selling, accounting, and over 100 standard reports, making PICS a comprehensive system for various fresh produce businesses. However, one drawback is that pricing details aren’t available without requesting a quote.
What Is Fresh Produce Software?
Fresh produce software is a type of food distribution software tailored for the fresh fruit and vegetable sector. It integrates various functions like inventory management, quality control, sales, and logistics, focusing on real-time perishable food inventory management and traceability. This software aids in handling complex costs and operations in the produce industry, including production, transportation, and handling fees.
Fresh produce software offers modules for inventory, accounting, buying, selling, processing, packing, growing, brokerage, and more, ensuring efficient supply chain management and quick response in recall situations. It caters to industry growers, packers, shippers, wholesalers, and distributors. Users handling meat or grains should visit our best food distribution software roundup instead.
Key Features
- Traceability: Record the origin of a product, ingredient, or component. Best used for identifying defective or contaminated produce. Ensure you can create PTI-compliant labels for fresh produce
- Inventory Management: Monitor your real-time inventory produce stock levels. Improve your inventory control processes via barcode scanning, FIFO, picking locations, and stock adjustments and transfers. More advanced produce ERP systems will include a warehouse management module.
- Accounting: Track financial transactions to record profit and loss and better improve business finances and overall cash flow. Manage produce pricing, forecasting, and planning.
- Supply Chain Management: Handles your shipping and receiving, routing and delivery, sales order processing, purchase order management, and picking processes.
- EDI: Facilitates the exchange of business documents from one computer to another in a standard electronic format between trading partners.
Primary Benefits
Stay Compliant and Prepared for Audits Via Automated Traceability
Software for the produce industry will be able to monitor production and operations in real time, providing a full view of all stock movement in your inventory. This is crucial for an industry with strict traceability requirements. This is accomplished by tracking variations in produce variety, grade, brand/mark, size, color, and origin.
A strong traceability tool will also track all-important delivery data. This starts with your sales shipments by logging where orders are being placed from, any documentation that comes with the said shipment, and proof of delivery receipts attached to invoices.
Produce traceability software will also record staff actions on your production or shipping floor. This includes line status, who was working that day, what orders came in, what was stocked, and any downtime that may have occurred. For example, knowing how long a product may have been outside your inventory before it was loaded onto a truck can help determine if there were any spoilage or expiration issues to be concerned about.
Organize Information During Recall Events
Keeping track of where your ingredients came from and where they were distributed allows you to quickly notify affected customers if specific batches of products were contaminated and need to be recalled. In the unfortunate circumstance of a product recall, you’ll want to ensure your company’s quality control department is prepared for the worst.
Your business will want to be quick and efficient in identifying any suspect produce. If a health emergency has occurred, you’ll want to efficiently find and identify any contaminated stock in your inventory or in any shipments.
Recalls can be caused by several factors, including contamination, allergens, spoilage, or improper storage and labeling. Vendors, production, or customers can identify these issues. In any scenario, you’ll also want to efficiently notify buyers, traders, and customers to meet safety compliance set forth by most governing bodies.
Some fresh produce software will allow a business to run a mock recall program. This lets your staff test their response to product traceability issues and any recall code requirements stipulated by food safety certification programs.
Pricing Guide
Fresh produce systems can range anywhere between $500 to $6,000/month. Subscription-based pricing models are generally found for cloud-based (online) software solutions. The price depends heavily on different variables, such as number of users, total employees, and annual income of the business.
For on-premise deployed systems, the cost will be much higher, as businesses will purchase the software outright. Again, the price varies based on several different factors, and most systems, like Famous Software, do not share pricing information publicly. Most businesses can expect locally installed (on-premise) options to have licensing, implementation, and training fees rolled together for their initial costs. Services such as support and data migration will usually be billed separately.
