Blog - DiMuto - Page 11

2019 was the year the world saw more public awareness on climate change.

Locally, 90% of Singaporeans surveyed are aware of climate change and 79% are prepared to do more to combat it. It is clear that the public’s sentiments on climate crisis are also echoed worldwide, with an eight-country poll conducted by showing global citizens prioritizing climate change as an emergency over migration and terrorism.

Problems of Climate Change – Food Security and Sustainability

A big part of the problem with climate change is that warming temperatures threaten food security. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), food security will be increasingly affected by future climate change through yield declines -especially in the tropics – increased prices, reduced nutrient quality, and supply chain disruptions.

Source: AFP

The ongoing Australian bushfire crisis has resulted in closed roads that meant food supply running low all over Australia, threatening food security. In Perth, Coles and Woolsworth have warned consumers to expect food shortages.

Experts believe that while bushfires in Australia are an expected natural occurrence, the intensity of the latest fires were aggravated by hotter and drier conditions associated with rising temperatures, exacerbating the crisis.

In lieu of changing weather conditions associated with climate change, we can expect that global food supply chains to be greatly affected.

Thus, there is a need to improve food security and consequently the sustainability of our food systems.

Food Security and Sustainability Challenges in Asia

Asia is often heralded as the fulcrum of our global food system, being both as a producer and a consumer of critical commodities including but not limited to rice, wheat, oil crops, cereals, livestock, root vegetables, and aquaculture.

Despite this, food security is a mounting concern as farmers in Asia actually produce less food per hectare than other regions – with the exception of Korea, no country in Asia exceeds the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) average for staple crops such as rice, soy, and corn.

Increased frequencies and intensity of climate-related disasters in Asia have been reported by the FAO to cost a staggering loss of US$48 billion. In Southeast Asia, the agriculture sector is exceptionally vulnerable to the impact of climate change due to its location in the tropics.

Source

Natural disasters worsen food security through reduced food production, which can then cascade down to the entire food value chain, affecting livelihoods and causing economic and agricultural loss. Disasters can impact the agriculture sector through a loss of assets and rural infrastructure, and through increased disease outbreaks.

This is compounded by the fact that Asia will grow exponentially in the next ten years, adding further demand pressures on the food supply chain in the region. By 2030, Asia will have an additional 250 million population, representing a whopping 65% of the global middle class population. In ten years time, Asia will also have doubled its spending on food, amounting to over US$8 trillion.

AgriFood Tech Opportunities in Asia

One of the ways to tackle the challenges of the Asian agricultural sector would be through investing in innovative technologies that help transform the food supply chain.

The recent Asia Food Challenge report jointly produced by Temasek, PwC and Rabobank estimates that a cumulative investment of US$800 billion above existing levels over the next 10 years will be needed to grow Asia’s food and agriculture industry to a sustainable size, in order for Asia to feed itself. The majority of these investments – around US$550 billion – will enable key requirements around sustainability, safety, health, and convenience.

“Efficient Marketplaces, Digital Adoption and Greater Traceability” is cited in the report as one of the five key areas of new technologies that can solve Asia’s food challenge.

Food supply chains in Asia are complex and opaque, with disconnected visibility of data. With digitalization and a marketplace platform, various agrifood industry players including smallholder farmers are able to connect the dots and have access to more information that can better match supply and demand to reduce food waste and improve efficiencies of the supply chain.

For buyers and relevant food authorities, visibility of the supply chain allows for the identification of issues in a way that was never possible before, allowing for targeted intervention in areas such as food waste. At the same time, suppliers can also get access to trade financing due to this new data.

Consumer involvement through scanning of QR codes to access food provenance and safety information allows data to be obtained, supporting growing consumer demand for greater sustainability.

2020 & Beyond

Agri-food technologies are on the rise, and more collaboration from all stakeholders ranging from corporate investors, government agencies and private businesses can be seen.

In Asia, more government policies have also focused on food sustainability.

The Malaysian government has also announced in 2019 the Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry Ministry 2019-2020 Roadmap in a move to look at revitalizing the agricultural industry and strengthen food security. Five key action plans have been raised, including increasing agricultural trade export and spurring agriculture modernization.

In Singapore, the government has set out a 30 by 30 mandate, where 30% of Singapore’s food supply has to be homegrown to bolster its food security – a new statutory board, Singapore Food Agency, has also been created to focus on food safety and food security.

Given the pressing need to revolutionize Asia’s current food systems and regional governments’ push for better food security, food sustainability innovation in Asia is definitely an exciting space to watch this year.

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

What is a Digitalised Produce?

A digitalised produce is simply a physical produce that has a digital identity. At DiMuto, we help to digitalise produce by tagging each fruit or vegetable with a QR Label. The QR Label acts as a digital identifier for each fruit and contains data pertaining to the fruit.

DiMuto QR on Western Australia apples

It is this data that now has the potential to transform the entire food supply chain and help solve major problems faced by the industry, such as food safety and food waste.

The Global Food Safety and Food Waste Crisis

The Produce Marketing Association (PMA), a 22000 member trade organization representing companies from every segment of the global fresh produce and floral supply chain, announced the switch from generic produce Universal Product Codes (UPCs) to company and brand specific produce IDs last month, a symptom of the industry-wide need for a higher level of traceability in the produce supply chain.

Romaine Lettuce (Photo by Skitterphoto from Pexels)

The news comes hot on the heels of the fourth E.Coli outbreak linked to U.S. Romaine Lettuce in just a short span of two years. The struggle to identify specific farms that cause the disease outbreak continue to plague U.S. regulators, despite improved ability to track ingredients and pathogens in different locales. Due to this lack of traceability down to product and farm level, the FDA recalled all romaine lettuce originating from Salinas, effectively shutting down the Salinas lettuce industry. Despite having scientific validation that their products are clean and there is no cross contamination, growers are required to stop shipments.

Food safety outbreaks typically have devastating impact on farmers and suppliers who have to destroy entire crops, amounting to enormous burden on economies from disruptions or restrictions in global and regional agri-food trade, loss of food and associated income and wasted natural resources.

Strawberries being mass-dumped in Western Australia. (Photo by Jamie Michael via ABC)

The consequences of food safety outbreaks and food waste are thus felt by all stakeholders in the supply chain. According to Food Safety Magazine, a total of 382 food recalls occurred in 2018 alone. The WHO estimates that as many as 600 million people around the world fall victim to foodborne illnesses every year. The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of United Nations says that a third of food produced for human consumption worldwide is annually lost or wasted along the chain that stretches from farms to processing plants, marketplaces, retailers, food-service operations, and our collective kitchens, costing industrialised and developing countries a staggering $US990billion each year.

Heavy costs of global food safety issues and food waste each year

Digitalization of Produce Allows Greater Traceability

With digitalization of fresh produce, industry players and regulators are now able to track the fruits down to the product and carton level as they move through the food supply chain. Beyond scientific documentation certifying good practices that by itself deemed insufficient by regulators, supply chain stakeholders can now “see” the product and carton itself, giving them a clearer picture of produce origin.

This can be done effectively with DiMuto solutions. Our proprietary Digital Asset Creation (DAC) system, otherwise known as DACkys, are able to capture not only a photo of each product and carton, but all the information associated with said product and carton, which is accessible on our DiMuto Platform. This ability to easily see all the relevant data on a single platform brings a new level of visibility and traceability to supply chain stakeholders including growers, packers, traders, retailers, wholesalers, and regulators.

With digitalisation of produce, food authorities are now able to better identify and isolate the source of the food safety outbreak – allowing produce from other farms to continue operations and shipments, preventing economic loss and food wastage mass dumping of crops from safe farms, and tackling food wastage at the source, which may be more effective compared to existing efforts such as the “ugly produce” movement that work on solutions applicable only much further downstream of the supply chain.

Not only does this mean that there would be better food safety across the supply chain, the new level of visibility would also mean that consumers can be notified about food safety issues much earlier. Consumers were only made aware of the U.S. E. Coli outbreak 6 weeks after the authorities established Romaine Lettuce as the cause of the outbreak.

Food traceability is more meaningful when it is beyond just documentation level and benefit stakeholders throughout the global food supply chain.

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]

Agri-Food Trade Tech Solutions Platform DiMuto Secures Investment from SGInnovate

Through blockchain, IoT and AI, DiMuto uses data from digitalising agri-food supply chain to solve agri-food supply chain problems such as food wastage, food safety and food sustainability
The funding and support from the government-owned venture firm will expedite global growth for DiMuto in new target markets

Singapore, 2 December 2019 – DiMuto, a trade tech solutions platform that provides end-to-end supply chain visibility for global businesses, is the latest portfolio company under SGInnovate. DiMuto is backed by the Singapore Government-owned venture firm to tackle global trade and supply chain problems with its technology. Using blockchain, IoT and AI in its trade solutions, DiMuto digitalizes the agri-food supply chain for data visibility and trade transparency, aiming to solve the industry’s various challenges, including the staggering US$110 billion loss stemming from food safety breaches each year, as discovered by a 2018 World Bank study. “Food security, safety and provenance are some of the biggest issues in the global food system today. DiMuto seeks to tackle these issues with blockchain-based solutions that can bring greater transparency to the Agri-Food supply chain. This demonstrates how Deep Tech can be applied in the real world to create an impact. We are excited to support them in their journey to expand to new markets and contribute to bringing safe and sustainable food for all,” said Hsien-Hui Tong, Head of Venture Investing, SGInnovate. DiMuto creates traceability for every single fruit as they move through the supply chain – from farms, factories, cold chain to distribution channels and end consumers. Through its proprietary Digital Asset Creation devices (DACky), DiMuto tags each fruit and carton with QR labels and captures images of every carton. Data such as relevant trade documents is then associated with the product information and uploaded onto its blockchained trade platform, effectively reducing disputes over quality and creating trust amongst trade parties. “We would like to thank SGInnovate for believing in our vision to redefine trust in the global trade landscape. With data captured using our solutions, stakeholders in the agri-food supply chain are now able to solve key challenges such as food traceability, trade disputes, as well as trade financing,” said Gary Loh, Founder and Chairman of DiMuto. To date, DiMuto has tagged over 30 million fruits and tracked and traced over US$100million worth of agrifood trades. With presence in 7 countries including US, China, Indonesia, Australia and Mexico, the new funding and strategic support from SGInnovate will allow DiMuto to further capitalize on its global growth momentum, and help drive further international expansion into new markets such as Europe and Latin America in the next few months. -end- About SGInnovate At SGInnovate, we build and scale Deep Tech startups into high potential companies with global impact. We believe that hard global problems can be solved using Deep Tech, and Singapore, where we are based, is uniquely positioned to realise Deep Tech innovations that can tackle these challenges. Our Deep Tech Nexus Strategy is focused on adding tangible value to the Deep Tech startup ecosystem in two key areas – development of Human Capital and deployment of Investment Capital. With the support of our partners and co-investors, we back entrepreneurial scientists through equity-based investments, access to talent and business-building advice. Our efforts are prioritised around emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Tech, MedTech and Quantum Tech, which represent impactful and scalable answers to global challenges. SGInnovate is a private-limited company wholly owned by the Singapore Government. For more information, please visit www.sginnovate.com 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 Track & Trace blockchain platform 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 seven countries and five continents. DiMuto is founded by executive chairman Mr Gary Loh, who is also the Executive Chairman of First Alverstone Group. For more information, please visit www.dimuto.io. ## For media queries, please contact: Grace Chiang Email: grace@sginnovate.com HuiMin LEE Email: huimin@dimuto.io

– As featured on the news: The Business Times Tech in Asia e27 FruitNet

[Announcement]

DiMuto takes another step towards food safety with its involvement in the PMA Gold Circle Campaign

DiMuto commits to raising the bar for food safety and a healthier world through the Produce Marketing Association Gold Circle Campaign for Food Safety
The trade technology service company joins over 350 fresh produce industry players to promote food safety, strengthen consumer confidence, and support increased demand for fresh produce worldwide

Singapore, 2 October 2019 – DiMuto, a tech-based trade solutions platform that provides end-to-end supply chain visibility for global businesses, is reinforcing its commitment to food safety by participating in the Produce Marketing Association (PMA) Gold Circle Campaign for Food Safety. The Gold Circle Campaign strengthens global food safety and consumer confidence by focusing on food safety initiatives, industry and consumer research, key partnerships with industry groups, government agencies, and educational events. As part of the PMA Gold Circle Campaign for Food Safety, DiMuto joins more than 350 fresh produce suppliers and buyers – from growers and distributors to retailers, foodservice operators and solutions providers – to promote food safety, strengthen consumer confidence, and support increased demand for fresh produce worldwide. DiMuto’s low-cost trade solutions align perfectly with the campaign’s objectives, as its Track & Trace blockchain technology seamlessly integrates with supply chain workflows and existing systems. This creates traceability and accountability for each fruit, from farms, factories, cold chain to distribution channels and end consumers. Every single fruit is tagged with a QR label, photographed and tracked at each stage of the supply chain to provide end-to-end, 24/7 visibility from farm to fork. Data is encrypted and loaded onto the distributed digital ledger, enabling verified documents and data to be shared on a single platform, reducing trade disputes over quality and strengthening trust amongst all parties. “We find ourselves aligned with the goals of the PMA Golden Circle Campaign. DiMuto’s priority in business has always been to create trust in the global trade and ensuring food safety across the global produce supply chains is an integral step in fostering that trust,” said Mr Gary Loh, DiMuto’s Founder and Chairman. “We hope greater adoption of our technology can tackle age-old issues of the produce industry globally, not just in terms of food safety, but transparency and food wastage as well.” In recent months, DiMuto has secured deals with major global players in the fresh fruits industry, including US-based citrus packer Fancher Creek Packing, Australia-based spaghetti squash trader Morning Glory Enterprise, as well as Thailand’s largest durian exporter Queen Frozen Fruit, to tag, track and trace millions of fruits for export to various parts in Asia. DiMuto has been inducted into the GS1 Singapore Solution Partner Program to offer blockchained trade management solutions for member companies of the not-for-profit Global Standards 1 based in Belgium. -end- 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 Track & Trace blockchain platform 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 seven countries and five continents. DiMuto is founded by executive chairman Mr Gary Loh, who is also the Executive Chairman of First Alverstone Group. For more information, please visit www.dimuto.io. About Produce Marketing Association (PMA) PMA, a global trade organisation representing companies from every segment of the global fresh produce and floral supply chain, founded the Gold Circle Campaign to address the industry’s challenge of increasing food production with fewer resources while bolstering confidence in the safety of fresh fruits and vegetables. In particular, the Campaign funds critical research and education delivered by dozens of research-based organisations, including the Center for Produce Safety (CPS) at the University of California, Davis. CPS focuses on prevention research that delivers real-world solutions applicable to the entire produce supply chain. To learn more about the Gold Circle Campaign, visit www.pma.com/members/gold-circle. ## For media queries, please contact: SEAH Kah Teik Phone : +65 3163 7475 Email : dimuto@kreab.com HuiMin LEE Chief Marketing Officer Email: huimin@dimuto.io

[Press Release]

DiMuto breaks into US market through deal with Central Valley citrus packer Fancher Creek Packing

DiMuto’s first foray into the USA, following deals with key fruits industry players in the Asia Pacific region
Central Valley citrus packer Fancher Creek to apply DiMuto’s Track & Trace blockchain technology to tag citrus fruits, including oranges, lemons and grapefruits, for export. DiMuto will also aid Fancher Creek in penetrating Southeast Asian markets
The deal underscores the scalability and interoperability of DiMuto’s trade management platform as an effective solution for global supply chains

Singapore, 23 September 2019 – DiMuto, a tech-based trade solutions platform that provides end- to-end supply chain visibility for global businesses, has expanded its footprint into the USA by closing a deal with major citrus packer Fancher Creek Packing (“Fancher Creek”). Using DiMuto’s Track & Trace blockchain solution, Fancher Creek will tag citrus fruits, including oranges, lemons and grapefruits, from the US to various parts of Asia. Located in Visalia, within the agricultural San Joaquin Valley, Fancher Creek’s packing facility is strategically situated in the heart of California’s Central Valley, which grows over 250 different crops, with an estimated value of US$17 billion, annually. Central Valley is also responsible for a quarter of the food production in the US. Fancher Creek works with growers, packers and shippers to provide citrus produce to the rest of the US, as well as overseas markets, such as Japan and Korea. Additionally, DiMuto will aid Fancher Creek in expanding its distribution channels by penetrating Southeast Asian markets in DiMuto’s trade network, including Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. As part of its trade solutions, DiMuto’s Track & Trace blockchain technology is a low-cost, effective solution that seamlessly integrates with supply chain workflows and existing systems to create traceability and accountability for each fruit, from farms, factories, cold chain to distribution channels and end consumers. Every single fruit is tagged with a QR label, photographed and tracked at each stage of the supply chain to provide end-to-end, 24/7 visibility from farm to fork. Data is encrypted and loaded onto the distributed digital ledger, enabling verified documents and data to be shared on a single platform, reducing trade disputes over quality and strengthening trust amongst all parties. Mr Gary Loh, DiMuto’s Founder and Chairman, said, “We are tremendously excited to be working with Fancher Creek to break into the US market and establish a presence in California’s Central Valley. The adoption of our technology by more players across the global produce industry underscores the scalability of our all-in-one trade management platform. It is platform-agnostic and interoperable among the different blockchain systems currently used by the big international retailers, and we envisage a faster rate of market adoption for our trade solution as retailers are increasingly requesting for suppliers to go on the blockchain to complete end-to-end traceability. As such, DiMuto ensures that we meet the needs of our global clients by adhering to internationally-accepted and business-led standards.”

DiMuto was most recently inducted into the GS1 Singapore Solution Partner Program (“SPP”) to offer blockchained trade management solutions for member companies of the not-for-profit Global Standards 1 (“GS1”) based in Belgium. As part of the SPP, DiMuto’s solutions can be easily adopted by GS1 supply chain players all over the world for their trade management needs. -end-

For media queries, please contact: SEAH Kah Teik Phone : +65 3163 7475 Email : dimuto@kreab.com HuiMin LEE Chief Marketing Officer Email: huimin@dimuto.io

– As featured on the news: Perishable News FreshPlaza FruitNet The Packer

[Announcement]

DiMuto joins GS1 Singapore Solution Partner Program (SPP) to offer blockchained trade management solutions

Singapore, 16 August 2019 – DiMuto, a tech-based trade solutions platform that provides end-to-end supply chain visibility for global businesses, has joined the GS1 Singapore Solution Partner Program to offer blockchained trade management solutions for companies using GS1 systems. Complementing GS1 standards, DiMuto’s all-in-one trade management platform aims to tackle key issues that are hampering global trade in the agri-food cold chain market, including financing, supply chain transparency, access to new markets as well as food safety and wastage. Specifically, it aims to level the playing field for small and medium- sized fruits businesses to compete with big global brands. Its Track & Trace blockchain technology is a low-cost, effective solution that is integrated into supply chain workflows and existing systems to create traceability and accountability across the entire supply chain. This is enabled through DiMuto’s Digital Asset Creation (DAC) system to digitise physical goods, such as fresh produce, into traceable digital assets allowing users to track the assets at each stage of the supply chain. Apart from addressing the problems arising from the disconnected visibility, its trade solutions platform provides meaningful data analytics to help industry players better understand buyers, optimise production and sales, and improve their business operations. In addition, DiMuto is working with its customers to provide trade financing and, with its established network of industry players across the world, access to new export markets. Mr Gary Loh, Chairman and Founder of DiMuto, says, “DiMuto’s goal to demystify global trade and enable collaborative commerce ties in with GS1 Singapore’s efforts to improve supply chain management among its member organisations. Blockchain solutions form only one part of our all-in-one trade management platform. We will be rolling out more modules that leverage the latest technologies to benefit our customers’ operations. We look forward to working with GS1 member organisations to provide trade solutions derived from the best practices established by global supply chain standards.” Since its establishment in 2018, DiMuto has captured global growth momentum with the support of key produce industry leaders in Asia and the Americas. It is building global industry benchmarks for trade blockchain solutions with PwC Singapore’s Venture Hub. In June 2019, DiMuto closed a deal with Queen Frozen Fruit, Thailand’s largest exporter of durians, to tag, track and trace over four million durians. Its trade financing partner, Havenport Investments leverages the Track & Trace solution to conduct more accurate credit assessment and provide financing to Queen Frozen Fruit.

During its product trials between March 2019 and June 2019, DiMuto tagged 1.2 million fruits (durians, apples, avocados, lemons and oranges) for various industry players in the US, Thailand, Mexico, Australia and China. It is set to apply its technology to other produce categories, including longans and mangosteens. – END – About GS1 Singapore GS1 Singapore, which is affiliated to Singapore Manufacturing Federation, is part of the not-for-profit Global Standards 1 (GS1) organisation based in Belgium, Brussels with offices in 115 countries. GS1 Singapore has close to 2,000 member companies across multiple sectors and is working with organisations and public agencies such as SPRING Singapore, iDA, CUSTOMS, HSA and e2i to promote and drive adoption of standards, thus helping Singapore companies to improve their competitiveness and operational efficiencies. For more information visit https://www.gs1.org.sg/Home.aspx About DiMuto Pte Ltd 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 Track & Trace blockchain platform 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 seven countries and five continents. DiMuto is founded by executive chairman Mr Gary Loh, who is also the Executive Chairman of First Alverstone Group.

For more information, please visit www.dimuto.io GS1 Singapore Contact: Ms. Esther Goh Manager, Marketing & Partnership M: +65 6826 3089 E: esther.goh@gs1.org.sg DiMuto Contact: Ms. HuiMin Lee Chief Marketing Officer M: +65 9231 8607 E: huimin@dimuto.io To see the original Press Release, click here.

Founder Gary Loh on CNA938 Money Mind – Tracking durians with blockchain technology

[Press Release]

PwC Singapore’s Venture Hub and DiMuto announce strategic partnership which will grow the global agri-food cold chain market

Partnership with PwC Singapore’s Venture Hub will equip DiMuto with the expertise to scale up its operations globally in a bigger way
Partnership will also see both parties build a trust framework, which aims to establish a set of principles to enhance safety and security of DiMuto’s Track & Trace blockchain solution in the food supply chain.

Singapore, 29 July 2019 – DiMuto, a trade technology service that provides end-to-end supply chain visibility for global businesses, will become a strategic partner of PwC Singapore’s Venture Hub. The strategic partnership will provide DiMuto with valuable expertise, including business and operations advisory support, to scale up its operations in the agri-food cold chain market globally. PwC Singapore’s Venture Hub adopts a one-stop shop approach to providing solutions, services and collaborating with motivated entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, incubators and accelerators within the venture ecosystem to help them expand into their key markets. “This is a significant milestone for DiMuto as it strengthens our capabilities in using disruptive innovation to grow the global agri-food cold chain market – in a bigger way. With PwC’s deep expertise in helping quality companies with their expansion plans, we are confident of accelerating our expansion worldwide, as we continue rolling out our Track & Trace blockchain solution to benefit more industry players. Now that we have stronger resources, we envisage a faster rate of market adoption for DiMuto’s trade solution, which is platform-agnostic and interoperable among the different blockchain systems currently used by the big global retailers,” said Mr Gary Loh, DiMuto’s Founder and Chairman <卢福全, 创办人与主席, 迪牟濤有限公司>. DiMuto’s Track & Trace blockchain solution, which digitises each fruit into a traceable digital asset, tackles key issues that are hampering global trade in the agri-food cold chain market, including financing, supply chain transparency, as well as food safety and wastage. It also levels the playing field for small and medium-sized fruits businesses to compete with the big global brands. As it stands, Thailand’s Queen Frozen Fruits and Australia’s Morning Glory Enterprise are now using the solution to track and trace the movement of durians and spaghetti squash, respectively. During its three-month product trials between March 2019 and June 2019, DiMuto has tagged 1.2 million fruits (durians, apples, avocados, lemons and oranges) for various industry players in the US, Thailand, Mexico, Australia and China. Patrick Yeo, PwC Singapore’s Venture Hub Leader <杨显聪, 创投中心主管合伙人, 普华永道新加坡> commented, “In today’s business environment, innovation is no longer just nice to have. Businesses across all industries need to constantly innovate in order to keep up with the pace of change. Strengthening traceability in the food supply chain through innovative technologies is in line with our purpose of building trust in society and solving important problems; and we are pleased to be working with DiMuto in this regard.”

For a start, both parties intend to develop a trust framework for DiMuto’s Track & Trace blockchain solution which aims to establish a set of principles to enhance safety and security in the food supply chain. “DiMuto is in the business of creating trust, which we feel is sorely lacking in global trade. While many companies are already using blockchain technology to enhance traceability, more can be done to strengthen the trust factor and eliminate any lingering skepticism in relation to the usage of blockchain. This can be in the form of more well-defined industry standards to address potential governance gaps. We believe blockchain represents a new era of our economy and is here to stay. By developing a blockchain trust framework, we hope to raise standards and encourage greater adoption. Ultimately, we aim to create a healthy environment for disruptive innovation to positively impact our lives and the economy in a greater way,” added Mr Loh. -end- 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 Track & Trace blockchain platform 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 seven countries and five continents. DiMuto is founded by executive chairman Mr Gary Loh, who is also the Executive Chairman of First Alverstone Group. For more information, please visit www.dimuto.io. About PwC At PwC, our purpose is to build trust in society and solve important problems. We’re a network of firms in 158 countries with over 250,000 people who are committed to delivering quality in assurance, advisory and tax services. Find out more and tell us what matters to you by visiting us at www.pwc.com/sg. PwC refers to the PwC network and/or one or more of its member firms, each of which is a separate legal entity. Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further details.

## For media queries, please contact: SEAH Kah Teik Phone : +65 3163 7475 Email : dimuto@kreab.com Natalie CHOO Phone: +65 8722 7545 Email: Natalie.yl.choo@pwc.com Find the press release here.

– As featured on the news: Fruitnet ApplesandPearsNZ

[Press Release]

DiMuto launches Track & Trace blockchain platform with deal to digitise four million durians in the upcoming durian season for Thailand’s largest durian exporter

The Singapore-based startup is the first in the world to transform fresh durians into traceable digital assets
DiMuto’s Track & Trace solution provides a whole new level of visibility to Queen Frozen Fruit’s supply chain partners, minimising trade disputes while building trust and collaborative commerce within the durian trade
This increased transparency solves one of the biggest issues faced by the fresh fruits industry – access to traditional bank financing; opens up new trade finance avenues for businesses
Enables trade financing partner, Havenport Investments, to confidently quantify and mitigate financial risks associated with the fresh fruits industry, which are often deemed to be onerous

Singapore, 11 July 2019 – DiMuto, a trade technology service that provides end-to-end supply chain visibility for global businesses, has closed a deal with Thailand’s largest fresh durian exporter and frozen durian producer – Queen Frozen Fruit (Queen) – for the upcoming durian season. DiMuto will tag, track and trace around four million fresh durians from Thailand to China, Japan and other parts of Asia. The Singapore-based startup is the first in the world to transform fresh durians into traceable digital assets. Under the deal, DiMuto is expected to turn four million durians into traceable digital assets from now to December 2019, enabling each durian to be uniquely tagged, photographed, tracked at each stage of the supply chain. DiMuto’s Track & Trace blockchain platform seamlessly integrates with supply chain workflows and existing systems to create traceability and accountability for each of the durians, from farms, factories, cold chain to distribution channels and end consumers. Data is encrypted and loaded onto the distributed digital ledger, enabling Queen and its trade partners to obtain end-to-end, 24/7 visibility to the entire supply chain, from creating trade contracts, monitoring packing status, product receipt confirmation to customer feedback. This in turn allows Queen to share verified documents and data with its partners on a single platform, reducing trade disputes over quality and strengthening trust with its customers and trade partners. The increased transparency solves one of the biggest issues faced by the fresh fruits industry: access to traditional bank financing. “Securing funding from banks has always been a challenge in the fresh fruits industry as risk managers cannot see what is happening behind the scenes. Due to the disconnected visibility in the supply chain, the industry is paying a heavy cost for trade disputes, food safety breaches and wastage. DiMuto’s overarching goal is to address these challenges by creating trust, demystifying global trade and fuelling the growth of this industry. In the process, we aim to level the playing field for the underbanked SMEs in the industry by opening up new trade finance avenues for them,” said DiMuto’s Founder and Chairman, Mr Gary Loh.

With the full supply chain visibility provided by the Track & Trace blockchain solution, DiMuto’s trade finance partner, Havenport Investments (Havenport), can now conduct more accurate credit assessment and extend trade financing to more quality businesses. Havenport has started providing trade financing to Queen, which has 14 fresh durian packing houses across the country, and four factories to produce Thai tropical fruits for domestic sales and exports to over 30 countries. In 2018, Queen was responsible for over 10 million durians exported to international markets and its total company revenue amounted to US$271 million. “Our collaboration with Queen establishes us as a key player in the global fresh fruits industry, and our partnership with Havenport is testament to the assurance we can provide to empower fund managers to venture into industries previously considered to be too much of a risk,” added Mr Loh. The partnership between Havenport and DiMuto could potentially extend beyond the fresh fruits industry, as Havenport plans to expand its trade financing portfolio by leveraging on the DiMuto’s technology where possible. “With Havenport’s institutional-style process and risk management, our starting point for our investment solutions has always been to look at risks. DiMuto’s blockchain technology is an excellent solution for us to quantify and isolate the risks of related trades, and be in a stronger position to attribute liability. This will enable us to confidently provide trade financing to a wider range of quality and profitable businesses, especially those that have traditionally been unable to obtain bank financing. In particular, we focus on businesses that are uncorrelated to the volatility of the broader equity and bond markets,” said Mr Patrick Tan, Managing Partner, Havenport. Established in 2018, DiMuto has captured global growth momentum with the support of key produce industry leaders in Asia and the Americas. It has also formed strategic partnerships to empower trade financing in the fresh fruits industry, and to build global industry benchmarks for trade blockchain solutions. Beyond durians, DiMuto is set to apply its technology to other produce categories, such as longans, mangosteens and avocados. During its three-month product trials between March 2019 and June 2019, DiMuto has tagged 1.2 million fruits (durians, apples, avocados, lemons and oranges) for various industry players in the US, Thailand, Mexico, Australia and China.

*Above: Fresh durians in the packhouse ready to be tagged*

*Above: Unique QR codes assigned to each durian by DiMuto*

*Above: DiMuto’s Digital Asset Creation (DAC) service to digitise each durian into an immutable digital asset on the Track & Trace blockchain platform*

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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 Track & Trace blockchain platform 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 seven countries and five continents. DiMuto is founded by executive chairman Mr Gary Loh, who is also the Executive Chairman of First Alverstone Group, and the Vice Chairman and Non-Executive Director of SunMoon Food Company Ltd. About Havenport Leveraging its strong heritage in institutional and retail asset management, Havenport is today an asset management and wealth services company integrating its asset management, wealth management and capital management expertise to create innovative investing, wealth and capital solutions for our clients and business partners. Since its establishment in 2010, the firm has been serving the investing needs of sovereign wealth funds, global pension funds, banks, financial advisors and individual investors. Its mission is to create income and growth producing opportunities for passive investors, delivered in a secure and risk conscious manner. For more information, please visit www.havenport.com.

For media queries, please contact: SEAH Kah Teik Email : dimuto@kreab.com HuiMin LEE Email: huimin@dimuto.com

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As featured on the news:

[Press Release]

Havenport Investments partners DiMuto to finance the durian trade using blockchain technology

Havenport, an asset management and wealth services company, to provide trade financing to Thailand’s largest durian exporter
Adoption of DiMuto’s blockchain technology to track and trace every single durian from farm to fork enables Havenport to manage and mitigate risks; and confidently finance the durian business – a trade that banks typically find challenging to fund due to the “almost impossible” task of managing risks associated with the fresh fruits industry.
Achieves breakthrough in trade financing as the partnership with DiMuto empowers Havenport to finance a wider range of quality businesses, including non-conventional ones that traditionally would require more onerous risk management.

Singapore, 17 June 2019 – Havenport Investments (Havenport), managed by veteran fund managers Patrick Tan and Joseph Tern, has started providing trade financing to Thailand’s largest durian exporter – Queen Frozen Fruit, thanks to its partnership with blockchain technology company DiMuto.This is a breakthrough in trade financing as the onerous task of managing financing risks associated with the fresh fruits industry has largely prevented banks and financial institutions to extend credit lines to related businesses. The partnership with DiMuto empowers Havenport to more holistically manage and mitigate risks related to the durian trade. DiMuto’s Track and Trace blockchain technology provides Havenport with end-to-end supply chain visibility of goods and money flow, as it digitises every single durian from farm to fork, enabling real-time monitoring of assets and clear documentation of every single trade transaction. Apart from mitigating invoice and goods tampering risks, the technology allows Havenport to determine and price the associated risks, effectively managing risks and opening new borrowing opportunities for small and medium size enterprises, and concurrently investment opportunities for Havenport’s investors. “With immutable blockchain technology, we are better able to quantify and isolate the risks of this trade and be in a stronger position to attribute liability. This will enable us to confidently provide trade financing to a wider range of quality and profitable businesses, particularly those that have traditionally been unable to obtain bank financing. Providing such financing is particularly beneficial to Havenport’s clients who are primarily income focused corporate and individual accredited investors, as we seek to deliver steady and regular coupon payouts, in a trade that is largely insulated from and uncorrelated to the volatility of the broader equity and bond markets.” said Mr Patrick Tan, Managing Partner, Havenport. Established in 2010, Havenport is an asset management and wealth services company that serves the investing needs of banks, wealth managers, financial advisors and individual investors. It structures and creates income-producing investment opportunities for passive investors, delivered in a secure and risk conscious manner. These solutions are particularly relevant in today’s aging bull market.

Havenport’s founders, Mr Tan and Mr Tern, are veterans in the asset management industry, having held leadership roles in Legg Mason, DBS Asset Management and Rothschild Asset Management. “Our institutional legacy has shaped Havenport’s institutional-style process and risk management to the wide-ranging investment solutions, including new classes of alternative investments such as trade financing. This sets us apart from other trade financing players and lenders,” added Mr Tan. Havenport has plans to expand its trade financing portfolio to cover more suppliers, industries and product types, by leveraging DiMuto’s blockchain technology wherever possible. “Our partnership with Havenport shows the power of DiMuto technology, which can tag, track and trace every food or fruit item as they make their way through the entire supply chain. This not only guarantees data accuracy and reliability but also encourages quality assurance, empowering fund managers like Havenport to price the different associated risks, and provide the financing to global trades,” said DiMuto’s Founder and Chairman, Mr Gary Loh. -end- About Havenport Leveraging its strong heritage in institutional and retail asset management, Havenport is today an asset management and wealth services company integrating its asset management, wealth management and capital management expertise to create innovative investing, wealth and capital solutions for our clients and business partners. Since its establishment in 2010, the firm has been serving the investing needs of sovereign wealth funds, global pension funds, banks, financial advisors and individual investors. Its mission is to create income and growth producing opportunities for passive investors, delivered in a secure and risk conscious manner. 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 Track&Trace blockchain platform 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 seven countries and five continents. DiMuto is founded by executive chairman Mr Gary Loh, who is also the Executive Chairman of First Alverstone Group, and the Vice Chairman and Non-Executive Director of SunMoon Food Company Ltd.

For media queries, please contact: SEAH Kah Teik Phone : +65 3163 7475 Email : havenport@kreab.com HuiMin LEE Email: huimin@dimuto.io – As featured on the news: The Business Times – Deploying blockchain in durian trade is bearing fruit CityWireAsia – Singapore-based wealth manager inks blockchain deal