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.
Embed Verification Into Operations
Julianne Thibodeaux, global head of commercial, FibreTrace, on proactively building traceable supply chains for any occasion: The most effective way to future-proof is to build due diligence into the operation itself, rather than assembling it reactively every time a regulation shifts. When verification is embedded in how materials move—captured at the source and confirmed at each stage—you’re not scrambling to respond to the next rule change because you already have all the information. The specifics of EUDR, UFLPA or whatever comes next matter less when your evidence base already answers the underlying question every regulation is really asking: can you prove it?
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.
The companies handling this well right now are the ones already asking that question before the Executive Order [on import fraud] and the guidance forced it. That’s the posture sourcing executives need going into H2.
Take a Risk-Based, Agile Approach
Rebecca Brocato, Chief Government Affairs Officer – Americas, Oritain, on building flexibility: Many of the challenges businesses face today are becoming increasingly interconnected, with enforcement, trade, sourcing and reputational considerations often converging around the same supply chain decisions. Ultimately, future-proofing is about building the confidence and flexibility needed to adapt as regulations, market conditions and business priorities continue to evolve.
Dr. Gediminas Mikutis, Chief Technology Officer, Haelixa, on prioritizing traceability: We are focusing on the supply chains where the risk and business impact are highest, rather than trying to trace everything in the same way. That means helping companies identify critical materials, suppliers and trade routes, and then applying the right level of verification based on the risk.
In our case, that means integrating forensic Haelixa DNA tracers into selected supply chains so companies can verify that the material in a finished product is the same material that entered the process upstream. This gives sourcing teams a higher level of confidence where documentation alone may not be enough, while keeping the approach practical and scalable.
Build a Proof Foundation
Brocato on going beyond compliance: The organizations best positioned for future disruption are those taking a holistic view of supply chain risk rather than responding to each regulatory development in isolation. What we are seeing is a growing need for approaches that transcend the compliance objectives of individual laws and instead support broader supply chain resilience and risk management.
Thibodeaux on treating traceability as brand strategy: Companies that only build to stay out of trouble will always be one step behind the next requirement. Companies that build a foundation of proof can turn it into something commercial—backing their claims, defending their premium, strategizing material origins for tariffs or free trade agreements, and moving faster than competitors who are still gathering documents. That’s the shift we’re helping brands make in the second half of this year: from compliance as a cost, to verification as an asset they own and can build on across their full brand strategy.
Close Data Gaps
Shameek Ghosh, CEO and Co-Founder, TrusTrace, on operationalizing data: Our focus for H2 2026 is closing the gap between having data and acting on it. Brands should be able to produce evidence for a CBP detention, an EU due diligence request, or a customer audit from the same underlying dataset, rather than reformatting information under deadline pressure.
Concretely, that means three things: closing Tier 2 and Tier 3 visibility gaps before regulators force the issue, automating document collection so evidence exists before it’s requested, and building toward supply chain data that surfaces risk proactively rather than waiting to be interrogated. The direction across all of it is the same; less time assembling the answer, more time acting on it.
