Build Traceability for Nigeria's Natural Hair and Skincare Supply Chain

Premium natural hair and skincare brands globally are building "ethical sourcing" stories around West African ingredients. But the supply chain from a Fulani shea tree in Kaduna state to a jar of butter in a London store has no traceability. Brands cannot verify claims, farmers are paid commodity prices regardless of quality, and the premium the brand charges for "ethically sourced Nigerian shea" never reaches the community that produced it. Your challenge is to design a supply chain traceability system for at least two Nigerian natural cosmetic ingredients (from: shea butter, black soap, red palm kernel oil, baobab oil, moringa). The system must enable a consumer brand to provide verified origin information to its customers, create quality differentiation that earns higher prices at source, and distribute a fair-trade premium to farming communities. Submit a system design and value chain document (max 12 pages) including: the traceability technology, how farmers are enrolled and trained, the quality grading methodology, how premium payments are distributed, the data interface for brands, and a plan to onboard 200 farmers and three global brands in the first 18 months. Judging criteria: 35% traceability design credibility, 30% farmer economics improvement, 20% brand integration design, 15% certification and marketing approach.