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• They produce and exports exotics fruits from Ecuador  in an easy and effective way.
• They offer a wide range of fresh products of high quality.
• Their customers are mainly wholesalers and distributors in Singapore, Hong Kong, the UK and USA .

• DiMuto Digital Asset Creation (DAC) and Trade Platform provided trade traceability
• With DiMuto traceability system and trade network, Pukuna Farms was able to enter into South East Asia Region
• SMART Marketing Solutions helped engaged end consumers and strengthen Pukuna brand

The Singapore Food Agency ordered a recall of US peaches that were potentially linked to the ongoing Salmonella outbreak in the States and told consumers to look out for specific PLU codes. However, “not all peaches with these price look-up codes are supplied by Prima Wawona” – this could cause confusion for end consumers.

Singaporean Consumers were told to look out for the code numbers on the peaches to know if they were unsafe 

The Problem with PLU Codes

Prima Wawona packaged peaches [Source: FDA]

For consumers, it is easier to identify exactly which brand or producer the affected produce came from, as in the picture of packaged Prima Wawona peaches shows. It is much more complex when it comes to loose packed fruit that has already been distributed out in the market.

According to the Produce Marketing Association (PMA), PLU codes, otherwise known as Price Look-Up codes, are codes that are labelled onto individual produce based upon the commodity, variety and size group. They are primarily used by supermarkets to make check-out and inventory control easier, faster and more accurate.

Thus, this means that the PLU code does not indicate which supplier or grower the produce comes from, which can make it challenging to do accurate, timely food safety recalls for loose packed fruit. This can also result in unnecessary food wastage due to the wholesale dumping of food simply because it is not possible to properly isolate the affected unsafe food.

In addition, these codes are also typically meaningless to the everyday consumers in groceries stores, which makes it difficult for them to remember what exactly which PLU codes mean on the spot, especially when the list of codes is extensive – they would likely have to search it up.

DiMuto Traceability Labels

With DiMuto traceability labels, a QR code is effectively applied onto each fruit. In the event of food safety recalls, end consumers can easily scan the QR code and be notified immediately if their fruit is safe to consume. This QR code brings consumers to a product page where the supply chain information communicated to them is verified and uploaded on the blockchain, on our DiMuto platform.

With DiMuto solutions, we are able to track down to every carton and every fruit by tagging each fruit and carton with unique digital identities or QR codes.

By tracing the fruit or produce from the supply chain upstream all the way to end consumers, we can then tackle food safety challenges in an accurate, timely and verified manner.

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If you are interested to learn more about how DiMuto helps create traceability for fresh produce, please reach us here or drop us an email at sales@dimuto.io.  

[Press Release]

DiMuto Secures Partnership with The Jupiter Group to Deploy Blockchain Traceability as Part of Global Expansion Plans

• DiMuto, a tech-based trade solutions platform, has secured a deal with the Jupiter Group, a leading global fresh produce company, to deploy blockchain traceability for their produce.

• The Jupiter Group is a leading global fresh produce company with headquarters in the United Kingdom offering a complete root to retail solution. The group farm and supply a variety of fresh produce including grapes, citrus, pineapple, avocado, lime, melon and kiwi.

• The British born company’s rapid growth has led to it being ranked in the top 25 fastest growing companies in The Sunday Times International Track 200 in 2018, 2019 and 2020. Today it has hubs in Africa, South Africa, South America, Europe, India and the United States.

• The agreement is part of Jupiter Group’s progressive global expansion plans to provide fully traceable, sustainable, quality produce to consumers around the world.

• The partnership will see DiMuto tagging Jupiter Group’s core product range, totalling an estimated 10 million cartons and approximately 500 million individual pieces of fresh produce grown in 11 countries. 

Covid19 has hit the world hard, and many countries are still reeling from devastating impacts. One region that has the global consensus of being the leaders in covid19 response is Asia.

As we have seen throughout this year, China and the Asian region in general have demonstrated a greater recovery in economic terms from the current Pandemic. China has managed to keep its cases under control and has been beginning to open trade with new markets and reinforcing the existing ones with the same Asian countries. Throughout the pandemic, China has grown by 1.2 percent, although the number is relatively low, which China has been able to maintain at a positive number, has demonstrated its economic strength. For 2021, the IMF predicts China’s economy will grow by 9.2 percent, leading all major economies.

The future is in Asia

In the current coronavirus climate, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted that only emerging Asia will see growth in 2020 and Asian Development Bank has stated that growth in Asia will rebound next year.

Over the past 10 years, GDP in emerging Asian economies have expanded 160%  while global growth measured about 30% according to IMF. With a strong foundation of economic growth in the last few decades, Asia is on track to top 50% of global GDP by 2040 and drive 40% of the world’s consumption, representing a real shift in the world’s center of gravity.

In China, the world’s largest economy, economic growth has exploded over the last 30 years. China’s economy has enjoyed 30 years of explosive growth, making it the world’s largest. At the moment, despite the pandemic, China´s economy have been recovering, and companies have also been shifting towards Southeast Asia as global supply chains continue to shift – a region that has US$5.3 trillion of global trade passing through each year. There is only a matter of time that Southeast Asia to become the fourth largest single market in the world by 2030 – putting it behind only the US, China and the European Union.

DiMuto Trade Network 

DiMuto understands the many difficulties in conducting cross-border international agrifood trade, and the various risks involved, due to the disconnected flow of information across global supply chains where buyers and suppliers are often located in very distant geographical areas.

With DiMuto and our trusted network of buyers in the region, you can trade agrifood products and fresh produce products with peace of mind. DiMuto Global Trade Network is made up of an exclusive network of trusted buyers and suppliers conducting traceable trade on the DiMuto Platform. With full supply chain visibility, growers and retailers are able to buy & sell fresh produce more effectively and efficiently. By joining our network, you deal with traceable, trackable fresh produce that has been digitized on the DiMuto blockchain-powered platform, creating data-backed trust and peace of mind when you conduct global produce trade.

Now more than ever, the coronavirus has disrupted trade, so the need for alternative suppliers & buyers is imminent. With our Global Trade Network you can find Suppliers/Buyers in different regions of Asia, so you can expand your supply chain network of trusted trade partners.

Tackling the Messy Middle Nightmare

Doing business with Suppliers / Buyers that are far apart can eventually end in a nightmare – creating what is called the “Messy Middle” where miscommunications, misinformation and trade disputes thrive due to the lack of data and information flows in the supply chain.

The Messy Middle of agri-food supply chains

Due to this Messy Middle, there is a lack of transparency, so packers and suppliers find themselves facing heavy burden of proof when it comes to proving that they have packed produce of order-specified quality to buyers and retailers.

It’s worth pointing out that Asian countries, especially China, have become increasingly important destination markets for Latin America’s agricultural exports. Therefore, agricultural products are exposed to larger transit times, composed of unreliable cold chains and a complicated mix of on-land, maritime and air logistics. It is impossible to successfully and safely arrive in Asia without Midstream Technologies providing packaging, shelf life support, traceability and know-how to support the product during its journey to the end-consumer. It’s very likely a consumer will receive a fruit that has travelled for 30 days but that doesn’t mean they won’t expect the same quality as one that was locally harvested.

With DiMuto 4T traceability solutions, you are now able to have visibility over the provenance of the food products moved from farm to table, all stored on the blockchain on a single platform.

When buyers receive the products, with the Dimuto Receiver App, the buyer has to scan the QR code of the carton boxes and take pictures of them as proof that the shipment has been received. This allows the buyer to provide feedback of the quality of the products or report defects if it is necessary. On the other hand, the supplier has the chance to prove they have sent their products in good conditions, being able to upload all the photos at the carton level into one single platform. So it is able to track quality issues down to individual cartons.

With our Digitalization solution packers and suppliers are now able to see the quality of the product before the products are shipped off, and access the information easily according to each sales and purchase order, reducing trade disputes. Learn more about how DiMuto has helped a Peruvian supplier with their avocado trade disputes here.

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If you are interested to learn more about how DiMuto helps create traceability for fresh produce, please reach us here or drop us an email at sales@dimuto.io.  

This article is a part of the series “The Digital Supply Chain”. This series explores what is digitalization, reasons for digitalization and best methods for digitalization of agri-food supply chains.

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An Urgent Need for Digitalization of Food Supply Chains

The digital food supply chain has been in the spotlight for a while now, and we’ve previously talked about the need to digitalize the food supply chain being made even more obvious during the ongoing pandemic, as well as benefits of digitalization (think better cash flow management and better food safety controls). A digital food supply chain would be more resilient to potential disruptions and allow players in the food system to navigate any uncertainties with data-backed decisions.

Full Supply Chain Visibility is Inevitable

McKinsey predicts a future where “digital platforms enable full transparency and traceability across the food value chain—creating an environment in which actors in the value chain can more easily buy and sell to each other, compare prices, and review and rate suppliers.”

According to PwC, food supply chain visibility is also an “increasingly standard expectation” from consumers.

A study published by LogisticsIQ states that the digital supply chain market is expected to reach $75-plus billion by 2030, with major drivers of growth entail Big Data, demand for greater visibility and transparency and the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technologies.

Thus, it seems like a digital food supply chain with full supply chain visibility is no longer a matter of if, but a matter of when.

So what does a digital food supply chain mean? What would it look like for the different players in the food system, and more importantly, how can companies prepare for digitalization so that they won’t be left behind?

The Implications of Digitalization

Supply chain transparency would likely reduce inefficiencies when it comes to the buying and selling of agrifood products, allowing all relevant information to be shared in a timely, verified manner between stakeholders.

For instance, DiMuto’s 4T Suite Solution allows procurement teams, purchasing managers and retailers to physically “see” the quality of every single carton of food products at the point of the packing house before the products are sent further downstream. Not only so, all trade documents are also tagged to each order, so both physical product information and documentation information can be shared between trade partners easily on our platform. Find out how we digitalize each product here and watch our explainer video here.

DiMuto 4T Suite

Supply chain visibility also creates trust between buyers and sellers and helps to facilitate open agrifood online marketplaces. Sooner than later, buyers would expect full traceability down to the individual product level and this would likely become the market expectation, fuelled by expectations of end consumers. DiMuto’s Global Trade Network helps to connect buyers looking for traceable produce to DiMuto-verified produce growers & exporters.

At the same time, transparency could also mean lower returns for traditional intermediaries such as distributors and traders that have traditionally thrived due to market conditions of information asymmetry and lack of trust. Acoording to McKinsey, trading margins of agriculture commodities have been shrinking, dropping from 15 percent in 1998 to just 9 percent in 2018. In lieu of lower margins, it is now more important than ever for agrifood intermediaries to be cost-competitive and reduce unnecessary losses. This can be achieved by adopting digitalization technologies like DiMuto’s 4T Suite Solution that can help reduce food wastage from trade disputes over quality.

Learn more about how DiMuto has helped a produce buyer to simplify the trade dispute resolution process here.

Thus, with the advent of digitalization, it is important for agrifood companies to adopt holistic trade technologies that will prepare them to navigate and overcome future disruptions.

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In light of the current coronavirus crisis, we remain committed to helping agrifood players trade better and build a more transparent food supply chain. If you are interested to find out how DiMuto can help your business, please reach us here or drop us an email at sales@dimuto.io.

Food Safety is More Important Than Ever

The issue of food safety is, now more than ever, at the public’s top of mind.

China recently discovered heavy traces of the coronavirus in the meat and seafood trading sections of wholesale markets in Beijing and China’s supermarket shelves cleared of imported fish and meat amidst concern about the virus being imported from Europe.

This has led to government agencies like Singapore’s SFA to issue a statement to clarify that there is currently no evidence showing the coronavirus can be spread through salmon or food packaging.

Incidents like the above can lead to a lot of disruption for the growers and suppliers of our global food ecosystem. Even with clarification statements from authorities in Norway, consumer perceptions will undoubtedly be shaken by such uncertainties and consumer speculation may still exist.

A Need to Foster Consumer Confidence in Our Food Supply Chain

This then highlights the need to bolster consumer confidence in our food supply chain. But food producers around the world may find it challenging to show, for certainty, that the food they provide to consumers is safe due to a lack of visibility of the current food supply chain.

This is despite the fact that there exists many global food safety guidelines and standards such as the Global G.A.P, the worldwide standard for good agricultural practices, as well as country-specific and trade-specific associations and agencies governing food safety and hygiene.

On top of this, in many food production sites, food safety, and personal guidelines such as adequate personnel training, effective supervision, good hand washing practices, wearing gloves and masks etc are actively enforced and has been the norm for quite some time.

It is perhaps telling that Produce Marketing Association, global fresh produce and floral trade association with over 53,000 industry professionals from over 2,900 companies, launched the Joy of Fresh campaign during the pandemic to reassure consumers about the availability and safety of fresh produce.

A 2018 study done by the International Food Information Council Foundation found that consumers get their food safety information through third party channels such as news article, friends/family members, or government agencies.

Given the current state of food safety, the question that agrifood players need to ask will be how can they directly communicate to consumers regarding food safety information in a timely, accurate, and verified manner?

Communicating Food Safety to Consumers Begins with Digitalization 

The answer to this perennial struggle may lie in digitalization.

When every single carton of food products and every single product is digitized,  agrifood players such as farmers, growers, packers, importers, distributors, retailers are then able to track and trace every carton and every product, even up till when consumers purchase the food. With digitization, not only do we have the digital footprint of the food product, but we can marry it with the physical characteristics of the product – namely the condition of the product, the temperature, the location and so on.

When we connect the dots of the food supply chain by having both the data from digital documentation associated with supply chain movements and the data of the physical condition of the food product, food system stakeholders will enjoy supply chain visibility that gives them the ammunition to confidently communicate to consumers the good work that they have done.

So how can we digitize the food supply chain to reap such benefits?

DiMuto 4T Suite Solutions

With DiMuto 4T Suite Solutions, agrifood players are able to track fresh produce and food products as they move through the supply chain to ensure compliance with hygiene and safety regulations.

DiMuto 4T Suite enables producers to digitize their products for seamless food traceability and supply chain visibility. Powered by blockchain, AI, and IoT, blockchain’s incorruptible traceability features allow agricultural products like fresh produce, livestock and seafood, as well as food ingredients to be actively tracked throughout the supply chain.

At the upstream of the food supply chain, unique DiMuto QR Codes and our proprietary Digital Asset Creation devices, DACky, are able to help create a digital identity for every single carton of food product and every product. We also use a combination of AI & IoT in our DACky devices to capture data about produce conditions that can help with quality assurance regarding food safety.

DiMuto QR Codes allows traceability of every single fruit throughout the supply chain

On our blockchain-powered DiMuto Platform, companies can record any and all certifications required by the industry of the particular product offered and associate it with the particular product. The immutability of our records deters fraud and helps attest that the company is carrying out good health and hygiene practices.

At the same time, we are also able to capture poor quality fruit that is not safe to consume on our system. Buyers and importers receive goods that do not fulfill orders specifications or products that have some form of quality issues. Our Dimuto Receiver App allows buyers to record issues immediately upon arrival and capture a photo of any food quality issues on one single platform. Thus, this helps to strengthen the visibility of the supply chain and safeguard food safety.

Find out how we were able to track every single carton with quality issues and visual evidence showing the poor physical condition of the fruit for a Thai importer for a shipment of US Citrus here.

DiMuto SMART Marketing

With food traceability, companies and producers can then communicate to consumers and show that the proper handling processes have been done, product certifications have been verified. Our marketing module, DiMuto SMART Marketing, allows companies to easily communicate this traceability story to consumers with DiMuto SMART Marketing.

Now consumers can scan the Dimuto QR code tagged on each product, and access product information and verified certificates that have been captured on our blockchain and learn about produce origins and get to know their food producers.

The added level of visibility on their food source will alleviate concerns about food safety and help with building confidence in a brand that is traceable and transparent with their food handling and food safety information.

Thus, in addition to current communication channels, companies are now able to directly communicate to end consumers and build trust with consumers.

Read more about how we have helped Morning Glory Farms to tell their traceability story to consumers and build their brand in new export markets.

Food Recall & Food Safety Outbreaks Continues to Plague the Industry

Food safety recalls due to either contaimination of foregin material or foodborne illnesses are common – just take a look at the top 50 recalls of 2019 in the US.

The 2018 outbreak of E. coli infections related to romaine lettuce from the Yuma growing region took about three months to resolve, resulting in 210 sick people, 96 hospitalizations, and five deaths. Most recently, the FDA is working with retailers to ensure the potentially adulterated Freshworld bagged salad products are effectively removed from the market place in the June 2020 Cyclospora outbreak.

The lack of visibility of the supply chain makes investigation time consuming. Companies can get in front of this and conduct efficient recalls and directly communicate to consumers.

With DiMuto Solutions, products can also be easily recalled, aiding in limiting the spread of the disease (regardless of whether the disease is due to a pandemic virus or a food pathogen) due to additional traceability down to individual product levels. If an affected product needs to be recalled, consumers can just simply scan the QR and will be notified by a pop-up if there is a problem with their product.

Therefore, in addition to transmitting security and confidence to consumers, our solution can also help retailers to quickly and efficiently find a contaminated product. Traceability could reduce exposure to the risks of food outbreaks by making it faster, more efficient, and feasible to contain the impact of food contamination.

This helps create a food system that can better meet food safety standards for end consumers in a timely and precise manner.

The Future of Food Safety

So what does the future of food safety look like?

With the increased consumer focus on food safety and the urgency to foster consumer confidence in the food system, it is imperative that we look at digitalization and traceability as a solution to be more efficient and coordinated when issues concerning food safety occur.

Be on the forefront of food safety with DiMuto.

In light of the current coronavirus crisis, we remain committed to helping agrifood players trade better and build a more transparent food supply chain. If you are interested to find out how DiMuto can help your business, please reach us here or drop us an email at sales@dimuto.io.

[PRESS RELEASE]

DiMuto Kickstarts Produce Traceability for Ecuadorian Exotic Fruits Grower Pukuna Farms for Its Asian Export Market  

• DiMuto, a tech-based trade solutions platform, commences produce digitization for Pukuna Farms, an Ecuadorian grower and supplier of pitahayas, passionfruit and sweet cucumber

• The digitization of Pukuna Farms’ fresh produce will help the Ecuadorian grower with supply chain visibility and consumer engagement

• Pukuna Farms is also looking to leverage DiMuto’s trade network to grow its Asian export market beyond its current presence in Singapore, Hong Kong, UK and US

• The deal with Pukuna Farms continues DiMuto’s expansion in Latin America, a major agriculture producing and exporting region

• Partnership with Pukuna Farms to underscores the 360 approach to solving global agri-food supply chain challenges that DiMuto trade platform brings beyond just supply chain traceability

Singapore, 24 June 2020 – DiMuto, a trade technology solutions platform that provides end-to-end supply chain visibility for global agri-food businesses, will deploy its trade traceability solutions for Pukuna Farms, an Ecuadorian supplier of exotic fruits.

Using DiMuto’s 4T Suite Solutions, Pukuna Farms will tag its pitahayas for produce traceability and supply chain visibility. Pukuna Farms will also tap on DiMuto SMART Marketing services to strengthen its brand presence within Asia and engage end consumers with its traceability story while leveraging DiMuto’s Global Trade Network in Asia and beyond.

Pukuna Farms is a producer and exporter of exotic fruits from Ecuador and Peru. Collaborating with farmers in the regions of Palora, Imbabura, Ambato, Riobamba and Piura, Pukuna offers a growing range of fresh exotic fruits including pitahayas, passionfruit and sweet cucumber for its customers in Singapore, Hong Kong, America and United Kingdom.

“We are pleased to work with DiMuto to grow the Pukuna brand in Asia and Southeast Asia. With DiMuto’s traceability solution, we are able to create trust with our export customers and also communicate our story to end consumers,” said Santiago Báez, Managing Director of Pukuna Farms.

The DiMuto 4T Suite Solution creates traceability for every single fruit as they move through the supply chain by capturing important data at key supply chain stages. Individual products and cartons are tagged with DiMuto QR codes to assign each one a digital identity. These products and cartons are then digitalized through DiMuto’s proprietary Digital Asset Creation devices (DACky). All critical information at each supply chain milestone is also recorded on the DiMuto Platform to truly close the supply chain loop on one single platform. This facilitates transparency in the supply chain, creating trust amongst trade partners.

As part of DiMuto’s trade solutions platform, the Sales & Marketing Retention & Awareness Tool (SMART) Marketing solution allows small and medium produce growers and suppliers to conduct cost effective marketing campaigns to engage consumers. When consumers scan the DiMuto QR codes tagged to individual food products, they are able to see the origin of their product, obtain information about the farm and growing practices, as well as learn new recipes and participate in exciting lucky draws. Consumers are also encouraged to leave feedback on their produce, giving brand owners important information about the quality of the product and the consumer experience.

Mr Gary Loh, DiMuto’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer, said, “We are tremendously excited to collaborate with Pukuna Farms. With the visibility provided as the fruits move through the supply chain, our 360 trade solutions can help Pukuna solve challenges including trade disputes and lack of consumer engagement that typically plague produce exporters.”

The deal with Pukuna Farms follows closely after a funding round for DiMuto’s latest investor, Latin Leap, a Venture Capital Studio focusing on opening up opportunities in Latin America for Southeast Asian tech-scale ups, as well as a technology partnership with Corporacion Industrial Uruapan (CIU), a Mexican company dedicated to designing and manufacturing post-harvest processing machinery.

To date, DiMuto has tagged over 30 million fruits and tracked and traced over US$100million worth of agri-food trades. With presence in 7 countries including China, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Australia, the collaboration with Pukuna Farms will strengthen DiMuto’s reach in Latin America.

Pukuna Farms Ecuadorian Pitahayas that has been tagged on both carton and fruit level arriving in Singapore

Every Pitahaya has been tagged with a DiMuto QR Code for traceability and consumer engagement

Consumers are able to scan the QR code to access product traceability information with DiMuto SMART Marketing

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 About Pukuna Farms

Pukuna Farms  produces and exports exotics fruits  from Ecuador and Peru  in an easy and effective way. We collaborate with farmers from the regions of Palora, Imbabura, Ambato, Riobamba  and Piura to offer a wide range of fresh products of high quality.

Our customers are mainly wholesalers and distributors in Singapore , Hong Kong , the UK and US. We have established a stable group of customers that allows us to offer smoother logistic and better service to our customers.

About DiMuto

DiMuto is in the business of creating trust. We provide global supply chains with a trade technology platform built on 4Ts: Tracking, Tracing, Transparency and Trust – thus demystifying global trade and enabling collaborative commerce.

The DiMuto 4T Suite Solution, a 4-part trade technology solution combining blockchain, AI and IoT, creates end-to-end trade visibility and forms building blocks for further value creation in trade financing, product marketing and data analytics. Since 2018, DiMuto has successfully tracked and traced over millions of pieces in produce and millions in dollars of trade value on our platform. We work with a global portfolio of clients in over  countries and five continents.

DiMuto is founded by chief executive officer Mr Gary Loh, who is also the Executive Chairman of First Alverstone Group. For more information, please visit www.dimuto.io.

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For media queries, please contact:

HuiMin LEE

Email: huimin@dimuto.io

DiMuto recently digitized US oranges that landed in Thailand and helped create a new level of visibility for the citrus trade. Read on to find out how did DiMuto help to solve the challenges of moving produce with no visibility.

The Challenge: Resolving Trade Disputes

What happens in the fresh produce trade every day? Currently, global produce trade is being conducted with little to no visibility of the supply chain, making resolving trade disputes over quality issues an inefficient process that consumes considerable time and manpower spent on gathering, collating and verifying information related to the trade.

The Messy Middle of Global Produce Supply Chains

Today, global fresh produce supply chains are extremely complex. This results in a disconnected visibility of the supply chain where companies are unable to track products as they move across borders. The lack of full visibility creates what is known as the “Messy Middle” – where miscommunications, misinformation, and trade disputes thrive due to the lack of data and information flows.

Having to Rely on The Benefit of The Doubt

With the lack of visibility in this “Messy Middle”, buyers and suppliers of fresh produce often have to rely on the benefit of the doubt in each trade transaction when something goes wrong. Because information is found over social messaging apps, emails and their individual ERP systems, it is often difficult to have the whole truth of the situation. This makes it more difficult to create trust and long-term partnerships, especially with new buyers or suppliers.

The Messy Middle Nightmare Begins – “Your Oranges Have Snowballs”

An order for a container of oranges was placed by a fresh produce importer in Thailand to a citrus supplier in the US. This was a first-time order between the buyer and the supplier. Unfortunately, there ended up being a delay of 10 days in the shipment arrival date, which caused mould and snowballs to occur on the oranges, as well as moisture-damaged carton boxes. Traditionally, the buyer would send the photos of the cartons on Whatsapp. With just Whatsapp photos, it is difficult to verify the information, thus dragging out the trade dispute resolution process.

No Data, No Visibility

Often, buyers and importers receive goods that do not fulfil order specifications, or products that have some form of quality issues. Moreover, the defects are only known only when the fruit or produce have arrived due to a lack of product visibility. This makes trade dispute resolution challenging. For this citrus trade, the Thai importer was:

• Unable to see physical condition of product until arrival
• Unable to show full extent of damages
• Unable to prove when goods were received

This becomes a huge problem, especially when each container of fresh produce can easily value from $50,000 to $150,000.

Creating The Benefit of Truth

Created by trade for trade, DiMuto brings visibility to the agri-food trade, bringing the benefit of truth to players in the food production ecosystem. Using the DiMuto 4T Suite Solution, a 4-part trade technology solution combining blockchain, AI and IoT, DiMuto digitalizes the agri-food supply chain for data visibility and trade transparency, aiming to solve the industry’s various challenges such as food waste, food safety and food sustainability. The DiMuto 4T Suite Solution creates traceability for every single fruit as they move through the supply chain by capturing important data at key supply chain stages. Individual products and cartons are tagged with DiMuto QR codes to assign each one a digital identity. These products and cartons are then digitalized through DiMuto’s proprietary Digital Asset Creation devices (DACky). Buyers can then use the DiMuto Receiver App to acknowledge the receipt of goods and provide feedback, all recorded on the DiMuto Platform to truly close the supply chain loop on one single platform. With the visibility provided by data captured as the product moves through the supply chain, DiMuto helps to reduce disputes over quality and creating trust amongst trade parties.

Easily track & trace every single carton and every single produce for all your produce trade using DiMuto 4T Suite Solution DiMuto helps provide increased supply chain visibility for both suppliers and buyers:

• Receipt of goods and feedback done on a single platform
• Able to track quality issues down to individual cartons
• Easily access product photo and related trade documents

An Evidence-based and Data-backed Trade Dispute Resolution

Using our solution, the Thai fresh produce importer was able to efficiently show the full extent of the damages and quality issues for all the affected cartons on one single platform, effectively speeding up the trade dispute resolution process. DiMuto 4T Suite Solutions allows the tracking of all trade information, including product quality information, to be done on one single platform. The information regarding each trade is shared between the buyer and the supplier, giving both the benefit of truth. Importantly, shipping information, trade document information as well as product quality information can be found all on the DiMuto Platform. On the buyer’s side, DiMuto Receiver App allows buyers to record issues easily and provide proof of quality issues on one single platform. Every single carton with quality issues is tracked along with visual evidence showing the poor physical condition of the fruit, as well as the acknowledgment of goods being received. This helps buyers to prove what is going on on their end across the world, and for suppliers to verify the story. This helps to facilitate trust and creates an evidence-based trade dispute resolution process. – If you are interested to find out how DiMuto can help your business, please reach us here or drop us an email at sales@dimuto.io. Download our full case study PDF here.

The Poor Shape of Global Food Supply Chains Today

It is no secret that the ongoing pandemic has wreaked havoc in global food supply chains – think food waste from border lockdowns, farm labour shortages and inflexible supply chain, so much so that we have the United Nation declaring an “impending global food emergency” due to the pandemic, and the World Bank warns of food supply chain disruptions threatening food availability.

Managing Cash Flow is Imperative for Survival and Growth in Covid19

Given the added chaos of covid19, it is now more important than ever to ensure that agrifood companies, such as fresh produce importers and exporters, to maintain a healthy cash flow for sustainable growth. One way to do that is to accelerate and unlock working capital trapped within supply chains.

However, given the complexity of modern global food supply chains, agrifood players typically do not have full visibility of their supply chain, and more importantly, the physical product that they are selling – once the apples leave the packing houses, growers, packers, and exporters usually do not have real-time visibility on the apples as they travel further downstream.

Visibility is Key to Managing Recovery

Real-time data on your physical food products lays the essential groundwork for actionable insights, predictions, and inputs to planning supply and demand, and cash flow requirements. In other words, visibility is key.

How can we do create such visibility?

The first step: digitizing your products.

To begin, DiMuto 4T Suite Solutions digitizes physical products with unique DiMuto QR codes, assigning every single carton and every single product a digital identity that can be tracked as it moves along the supply chain.

How to ascertain the condition of your product?

DiMuto 4T Suite Solutions uses our proprietary DACky to capture a photo of every single carton before it leaves the packinghouse, and also at the point of receipt, successfully providing visibility of product conditions at critical points of the supply chain.

These are then recorded on our DiMuto Platform – a single platform recording all details of every single trade transaction.

Building Trust with an Ecosystem of Visibility

Supply chain visibility is not achieved in silos; for true full visibility, solutions need to create an ecosystem of visibility that work for all relevant players in the food supply chain.

How can we make sure there’s visibility for all relevant stakeholders?

The complexities of food supply chains cannot be ignored. For true full visibility, solutions need to address operational concerns as well as different existing systems used by the multitude of players in a single supply chain.

DiMuto 4T Suite Solutions uses a combination of blockchain, AI and IoT to solve this challenge. We provide DACkys that are able to cater to manual, semi-automatic and automatic packing lines. Our Platform is able to record all relevant documents from both exporters and importers, sellers and buyers. Our Receiver App is a low-barrier mobile solution for downstream players.

It is only with an effective ecosystem of technology can full supply chain visibility be achieved, and the right data be collected.

Visibility Helps Unlock Working Capital

Given the disruptions and inventory shortages in the covid19 environment, it is imperative that procurement and finance/treasury functions to be more aligned. Thus, the next part to the equation would be getting product visibility to get more working capital.

How is this applicable in fresh produce industry?

Oftentimes, trade disputes lengthen cash conversion cycle. Visibility of the condition and quality of the product effectively accelerates the cash conversion cycles by resolving trade disputes in an efficient and factual manner. Learn how we have solved trade disputes for a Peruvian avocado supplier here.

Furthermore, having this added visibility of perishable food products opens up trade financing opportunities and unlocks working capital from receivables. Supplier financing supplier financing ensures financial viability of suppliers and resilience of supply chains while allowing buyers to maintain extended payment terms. Read about how we helped finance US$2million worth of fresh durian trade here.

In essence, we need to have product visibility throughout the supply chain and be able to utilize this visibility to unlock more working capital.

With a better managed cash flow, businesses then can better respond to and recover from disruptions brought by covid-19.

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 If you are interested to find out how DiMuto can help your business, please reach us here or drop us an email at sales@dimuto.io.

[Press Release DiMuto]