HGI: H2 Traceability Outlook: How Supply Chain Leaders Are Future-Proofing Operations
As regulatory scrutiny intensifies, supply chain leaders say the companies best positioned for the second half of the year are embedding traceability, prioritizing risk and turning verification into a long-term competitive advantage.
By Lauren Parker, August 31, 2026
The second half of the year isn’t likely to bring much relief for companies navigating an increasingly complex supply chain landscape. In fact, with trade policies shifting, enforcement increasing and new regulations changing how businesses approach sourcing, having your traceability ducks in a row is more critical than ever.
To future-proof supply chains, experts insist that companies make traceability part of everyday processes—strengthening verification where risks are highest and using supply chain data to proactively make faster, more informed decisions.
MeiLin Wan, Founder and CEO, GenuTrace, on making traceability more consistent:
Future-proofing means stop treating traceability as a once-a-year audit exercise and start treating it as a continuous verification layer, tested at the points of highest risk (raw fiber and yarn), not just checked at the finished goods stage. That’s not just good practice anymore, it’s what CBP [Customs and Border Protection] is now asking for in writing. Practically, that means: independent isotope origin verification on claimed origin claims, mapped and documented from bale to finished product, not just at the point of import; a defined process for what happens when a single sample fails, so there’s no vendor-relationship guesswork under deadline pressure; and a genuine second-opinion mechanism for flagged vendors, so a dispute doesn’t become a shutdown.
