Entering into the New Era of Smarter Food Safety in 2022 – Food Traceability is an emerging need in today’s world with open global markets and is a step towards making end-consumers become more aware of the food they consume and setting up sustainable and ethical food supply chains.
Food Traceability means being able to know the origin and traces of food products along the stages of the food supply chain – production, processing, manufacturing, distribution and consumption, ensuring visibility and transparency throughout the different stages of the supply chain.
Securing visibility and transparency within the whole food supply chain, traceability for movements of fresh produce will require robust technical solutions such as blockchain technology which enhances the ability to quickly pinpoint potential sources of contamination to efficiently prevent, contain or rectify outbreaks.
Food Traceability Will Lower Implementation Costs And Become a Norm In The AgriFood Industry
Blockchained Durians
Transparency in terms of blockchain food traceability can validate and authenticate the provenance of food and improve the brand’s credibility. Therefore the use of blockchain technology has become an essential tool to ensure efficiency and transparency for AgriFood trade transactions. Additionally, understanding food provenance is becoming more prevalent among end-consumers, making it critical for AgriFood businesses to better understand, manage and communicate product movement from farm to fork.
Food Traceability Technology will see lower implementation costs and become a norm in the AgriFood industry.
Read more on how how Blockchain Simplifies AgriFood Product Quality for a more efficient, sustainable and transparent food supply chain.
There Will Be A Strong Growth In Food Traceability Industry On A Global Scale
Between 2000 and 2016, world agricultural trade increased more than threefold in value, rising to USD 1.6 trillion in 2016. Market revenue growth is expected to be driven by rising demand for food traceability systems to identify necessary documentation and tracking for each stage of food processing. Increase in demand for important tools in the agri-food sector represents a very useful tool for analysing, monitoring and managing the flow of products.
Food Safety Concerns And Growing Eco-Consciousness Will Continue Influence Consumer Purchase Decisions
Food safety concerns have become critical in many countries, especially those with lack of standards, regulations, and stringent stipulations governing quality and safety of food and edible products.
Post COVID-19 pandemic, a sizable number of consumers developed some level of fear related to what they eat and who has been in contact with what they consume. This has been playing a major role in a number of companies deploying additional safety measures in order to support brand value, increase consumer trust, and drive revenues. This in turn has been adding a significant boost to demand across certain supply chains that have deployed the right measures and have built trust and enabled better traceability of food products.
With longer and more complex supply chains giving rise to the “Messy Middle”, tracking from farm to fork requires increased scrutiny and accountability throughout the process.
How DiMuto Helps
DiMuto Trade Management Solutions provide an all-in-one platform to help AgriFood companies track physical AgriFood products for each trade, down to each carton and product. Using our unique Digital Identities Labels (DIDs), companies can digitalize physical products and combine it with the relevant supply chain data on our blockchain-powered platform. Such traceability information can be shared efficiently within departments of the same organization, as well as with external stakeholders such as buyers, retailers and end consumers. This can be done by scanning each carton to access a web-based Product Passport, for consumers, or achieved through our “Quick Info” function for trade partners. By making the sharing of verified traceability data, AgriFood companies can now better manage food safety requirements in cross-border supply chains.
If you are interested to learn more about DiMuto’s Trade Management Solutions can help you achieve Food Traceability, talk to our sales team today at sales@dimuto.io.
[PRESS RELEASE]
DiMuto welcomes Julie Escobar as the new Chief Strategy & Commercial Officer
DiMuto, a global AgriFood Trade Solutions company, further strengthens its executiveleadership with the appointment of Nexus Agrotec’s Founder & President Julie Escobar as its Chief Strategy & Commercial Officer, who will be strategically advising DiMuto on all commercial & strategic areas of global growth.
Julie Escobar brings two decades of fresh produce industry experience to DiMuto with deep expertise in business development and export opportunities from Latin America to Europe and Asia. Her latest experience includes Senior Vice President of Partnerships at Renewable Resources Group, a stint as Vice President of Global Sales for Sun World International and overseeing international new business development for C.H. Robinson Worldwide.
Mrs. Escobar will be responsible for expanding DiMuto’s key commercial activities including global business development and go-to-market strategic execution. Mrs. Escobar will work closely with DiMuto’s Global Executive with the aim of accelerating DiMuto’s market presence in the US and Latin America markets.
The new addition to DiMuto’s Executive team comes off the back of the company’s Series A funding round late last year, and follows client wins and expansion including PT Sewu Segar Nusantara and SunMoon Food.
Singapore, 25 January 2022 – DiMuto, a global AgriFood Trade Solutions company that provides end-to-end supply chain visibility for global AgriFood businesses, appointed Julie Escobar, Founder and President of Nexus Agrotec, as its Chief Strategy and Commercial Officer. Effective immediately, the pivotal new role will provide strategic leadership across the business and accelerate DiMuto’s market presence in the United States and Latin America region.
Leveraging two decades of fresh produce experience to the DiMuto team, Escobar will shape and define DiMuto’s strategy, priorities, and long-term direction in its key markets with her expertise in developing multimillion-dollar global business success and effectively leading international project teams across multiple lines of business, geographic borders, time zones, and culture.
“We are excited to partner with the Nexus Agrotec team, currently led by Julie. On our journey of international scalability, Julie’s experience is critical to our ability to grow and service our existing and new customer accounts,” said Gary Loh, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of DiMuto. “Julie is an outstanding veteran leader in the fresh produce industry and has helped companies achieve tremendous growth with domestic and international opportunities. I believe that she will be a valuable addition to get DiMuto to our next stage.”
Prior to her current position as Founder and President of Nexus Agrotec, a consulting firm helping AgTech businesses to expand sales growth around the world, Julie Escobar was the Senior Vice President of Partnerships at Renewable Resources Group, overseeing strategic investments in sustainable agriculture in countries such as Mexico, Colombia, and Peru. Before that, she was the Vice President of Global Sales for Sun World International, where she was instrumental in elevating the Sun World brand and building their export team.
In addition, Julie Escobar is the Co-Founder and President of Global Women Fresh, a global non-profit organization working to close the gender divide in the produce industry and provide opportunities for Women in Produce to network, connect and learn across the fresh food supply chain.
“DiMuto is uniquely equipped to help produce companies overcome the challenges of operating the ‘Messy Middle’ of international supply chains with its strong suite of trade solutions. The commitment to drive positive changes in the global agriculture landscape with data by using solutions that truly cater to how the industry operates is something I am proud to now be a part of,” said Julie Escobar, Chief Strategy and Commercial Officer of DiMuto. “I strongly believe that what DiMuto has to offer will provide great benefits to the different stakeholders in the agriculture industry. I cannot wait to help shape and drive the company forward.” The latest addition to DiMuto’s Executive team comes off the back of the company’s Series A funding round late last year and follows several industry partnerships with companies such as PT Sewu Segar Nusantara and SunMoon Food in Asia.
Julie Escobar, Chief Strategy & Commercial Officer of DiMuto
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About DiMuto
DiMuto provides agrifood companies with data they can see and trust, down to every single product of every trade, where they can easily see all that is happening for every trade transaction in an organized manner, on one single platform.
DiMuto simplifies every step of global trade – from produce, trade to market, DiMuto provide sales, marketing, operations, financing and insurance tools so businesses can trade better.
Equipped with a data-backed growth roadmap, companies can now navigate the complex global trade landscape with ease and focus on what matters – growing a thriving international business.
With Visible Trade, DiMuto powers companies and the world forward with confidence.
Since 2019, DiMuto has successfully tracked and traced over millions of pieces in produce and millions in dollars of trade value on our platform, working with a global portfolio of clients in over ten 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
Pandemics are characterized by their severe negative consequences on the global economy. COVID-19 has had a significant influence on one of the most vital areas of the economy – the whole food supply chain, from the source to the consumer. The disruption to supply networks continues to be severe, with the virus continuing to cause numerous areas and economies impose lockdowns and restrictions, while others struggle to adapt to a post-pandemic landscape. The supply chain will be crucial in providing products and services promptly, reliably, and securely as economies begin to recover.
COVID-19 is causing the ‘Messy Middle’ in operations to be more challenging throughout the world in ways that are difficult to predict and measure. Agri-Food businesses are concerned that they will not be able to meet contractual commitments on time due to the new challenges posed by the pandemic and the lack of visibility; from Supplier to Retailer to End-Consumer. There remain substantial concerns regarding food production, processing, distribution, and demand in lieu of pandemic-related supply chain changes such as limitations to workers’ mobility, changes in consumer demand, the closure of food production facilities, new food trade laws, and financial constraints in the food supply chain.
In addition to the new obstacles posed by the pandemic, COVID-19 revealed previously unknown weaknesses in several sectors – Lead Times, Lack of Diversification and Visibility, and many organizations have experienced heavy losses because of it, exacerbating and hastening issues of the ‘Messy Middle’ that previously existed in the supply chain.
How The Pandemic Impacts the Global AgriFood Supply Chain
From farm to fork, there are five phases of the food supply chain (FSC). Two mechanisms are used in the food supply chain for food consistency and protection. The first focuses on rules and legislation that use mandatory requirements reviewed by government agencies. The second focuses on voluntary principles established by economic law or international organizations. FSC contains important final stages that can easily affect end-consumers. This includes safe food handling, preparation, delivery, the use of personal protective equipment such as helmets and gloves, surface disinfection, and work. Maintaining environmental and even social distance are some safety measures implemented to ensure the continuity of food flow.
The Covid-19 pandemic, unlike foot-and-mouth disease, avian influenza, and Listeria, does not directly infect animals or produce and therefore has no impact on development of diseases via produce. However, because of the pandemic, nations have severely restricted the flow of goods (land, sea and air transport) and the movement of labour around the world to manage and control the rate of transmission of Covid-19 between people.
Reportedly, Australia’s isolation rules have also created shortages of workers to harvest, pack, transport and distribute the fruit and vegetables which leads to strained distribution of food supplies. These conditions are aggravated with Uganda’s authorities demanding fresh testing of Covid-19 by the Kenyan truck drivers upon their arrival at the border with claims that their Covid-19 certificates are falsified, enabling the Truck Drivers to go on a strike due to the stated conditions. These situations greatly delayed the supply of fresh produce.
Chile Scrambles to Regain China’s Confidence on Cherry Imports
Chile’s association of fruit exporters Asoex stated that wholesale purchases of Chilean cherries have decreased to 4% below normal levels in 2021 and retail sales flopped heavily by 63% in China.
The cause of reduction for cherry imports in China is due to reports that have been made stating that some imported cherries tested positive for traces of the coronavirus in Jiangsu Province, which swiftly spread across the Chinese media making the consumers doubt and lose confidence in purchasing them. This incident impacted the cherry sales negatively as cherry sales suffer a devastating blow due to the fear of being contracted with the Covid-19 virus.
COVID-Driven High Freight Rates Makes Receiving Poor Quality Fresh Produce More Costly
According to the Xeneta Shipping Index, there has been an increase in freight rates, with global container prices rising by 3.2% in September 2021, which marks an astounding surge of 91.5% as compared to the previous year. As the costs are high in shipping fresh produce, receiving poor quality fresh produce would further incur loss in sales where a container of Fresh Produce can value between US$50,000 to US$150,000 and wasted costs that are not easily recovered where rises in freight costs are at an all-time high making goods rejection even more costly.
How DiMuto Helps AgriFood Companies Stay Resilient
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 Agri-Food products and fresh produce products with seamless visibility and accessibility. DiMuto’s 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 can buy & sell fresh produce more effectively and efficiently.
For Buyers:
When retail stores receive goods that do not fulfil order specifications or products that have some form of quality issues. Moreover, the defects are only known when the fruit or produce has arrived due to a lack of product visibility along the supply chain. This makes trade managing fresh produce challenging for retailers:
Unable to see pre-shipment product quality and container loading
Unable to quickly respond to inventory changes due to rejections from quality defects
Unable to communicate defects easily and effectively between internal teams
With DiMuto, Retailers can now enjoy accessible visibility of pre-shipment and post-shipment quality to better manage any potential loss of sales
Pre-shipment product quality down to every single carton easily accessible to commercial team
Trade information, documents and actions of each trade seamlessly recorded and presented in timeline view
Post-shipment product quality efficiently captured and communicated between QC, commercial and retail teams
Dashboard view of Inspection Management to ensure optimal product quality and vendor performance
Read more on How Retailers Can Better Manage the Impact of the ‘Messy Riddle’
For Suppliers:
By joining DiMuto’s Global Trade Network, you will deal with traceable, trackable fresh produce that has been digitized TradeTrust Blockchain Validation, creating data-backed trust and peace of mind when you conduct global produce trade adapting to the pandemic that has disrupted trade.
Read more on How DiMuto Uses TradeTrust Blockchain Validation to Strengthen Trust in Global Trade
Pukuna Farms Using DiMuto’s Traceability for Visiblity and Accessing New Markets
Based on a challenge faced by one of our customers – Pukuna Farms, they were finding a way to expand their market to such an unknown region like Asia, hailing all the way from Ecuador. It is not easy to enter an unknown market and for that, the supplier has to be reliable, where consistent quality is key. Buyers need to be assured that suppliers will sell their fresh produce in good condition and they will be receiving the products as per specified and upon the arrival of the fresh produce and buyers will be required to scan the fruits for visibility on the quality of fruits. For that, it is important to have full visibility in the supply chain.
With DiMuto’s traceability solutions, traceability and digitalization secured with Blockchain-Powered solution, Pukuna Farms was able to improve in sales as each Pitahaya is digitalized with DiMuto QR code so it can be tracked and traced on one single platform to provide full visibility as it moves through the supply chain, making it easier to manage trade dispute based on the information recorded timely on the DiMuto platform.
Product quality, farm information and trade information are captured on the DiMuto platform. Thus, the visibility provided by DiMuto to supply chain partners enables trade traceability and transparency, improving trust and establishing long lasting partnerships between supply chain partners.
Read more on how Pukuna Farms Uses DiMuto’s Traceability.
DiMuto Creates Trade Visibility for “The Messy Middle”
DiMuto’s Accessibility of Pre-Shipment and Post-Shipment Quality
With DiMuto, Retailers can now enjoy accessible visibility of pre-shipment and post-shipment quality to better manage any potential loss of sales
Pre-shipment product quality down to every single carton easily accessible to commercial team
Trade information, documents and actions of each trade seamlessly recorded and presented in timeline view
Post-shipment product quality efficiently captured and communicated between QC, commercial and retail teams
Dashboard view of Inspection Management to ensure optimal product quality and vendor performance
Fundamental shifts in consumer behaviour, supply networks, and routes to market have made Agri-Food companies face challenges in adapting and resolving them. As a result of the pandemic, companies must expedite the implementation of efficient solutions to navigate the unpredictability.
If you are interested to learn more about how DiMuto helps Agri-Food businesses leverage on an increased visibility to stay resilient amidst the challenges of the pandemic in the supply chain, please reach us here or drop us an email at sales@dimuto.io.
The Challenges of Managing the Messy Riddle
In the AgriFood industry, it is difficult to track fresh produce along the supply chain due to disconnected visibility. Because of the multiple players involved, critical data regarding product quality is often not shared efficiently between stages in the supply chain.
Often, buyers and retailers have no visibility on fresh produce products during pre-shipment. Quality issues will only be raised upon goods arrival, making it challenging to ensure consistently good quality supply. Receiving poor quality produce results in rejection-related loss of sales and food waste that can easily amount to thousands of dollars.
Food Waste Generated by Retailers Worldwide
In the US, grocery retailers generate a whopping 13% of total food waste, totalling a 10.5 million tonnes that go into landfills annually. Meanwhile, in the EU, supermarkets account for 5% of the food waste problem, sparking a pledge by the EU to cut food waste in half by 2030.
In Singapore, a central warehouse of a supermarket chain rejects about 15 to 20 pallets worth of fresh produce every day, typically due to not meeting product quality specifications agreed upon with suppliers. Each pallet can contain anywhere between 500kg and one tonne of produce.
How Receiving Poor Quality Fresh Produce Costs Retailers
A Container of Fresh Produce can value between US$50,000 to US$150,000. When Retailers receive fresh produce that does not meet their product quality specifications, it negatively impacts their inventory and sales.
Loss in sales – where the rejection of fresh produce leads to a decrease in their stock count and inability to fill the floor
Incurred costs not recovered – especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, the rises in freight costs are at an all-time high making goods rejection even more costly
In a typical fresh produce trade, buyers and retailers have no visibility on the conditions of the goods that were packed and loaded pre-shipment. This makes it difficult for them to efficiently respond to inventory changes caused by quality issues.
Based on a Real-Life Case Study on Moving Fresh Produce
Programme for 15 containers of fresh grapes from supplier to a supermarket buyer
Lack of visibility on pre-shipment quality from the supplier to retailer
8 out of 15 containers rejected due to quality issues and poor container unloading conditions
Inefficient communication between Quality Control team and Commercial team regarding quality
Loss of sales from 8 containers amounted to over USD$520,000
Entire programme had to be cancelled and discontinued
No Data, No Visibility
Often, retail stores receive goods that do not fulfil order specifications or products that have some form of quality issues. Moreover, the defects are only known when the fruit or produce has arrived due to a lack of product visibility along the supply chain. This makes trade managing fresh produce challenging for retailers:
Unable to see pre-shipment product quality and container loading
Unable to quickly respond to inventory changes due to rejections from quality defects
Unable to communicate defects easily and effectively between internal teams
Introducing DiMuto’s Solution
DiMuto’s 8 Product Features
See the full picture with Insightful Trade Data
From Produce, Trade to Market, DiMutoAgriFood Trade Solutions have 8 key Product Features that help you gain visibility of the in-betweens in your supply chain.
DiMuto’s All-In-One Platform
An all-in-one, farm to fork platform – Our 8 Product Features include:
Farm Management
DiMuto Maximize farm efficiency and profitability, read more.
Production Management
DiMuto Organize, track and trace your production, read more.
Trade Management
DiMuto ensures that you are in control of your trades with full visibility, read more
Inspection & Standards Management
DiMuto Organise, digitize and verify product quality, read more.
EmVend Marketplace
DiMuto helps you to Enter new markets and grow your exports, read more.
SMART Marketing
DiMuto helps differentiate your brand with traceability, read more.
Payment Management
Stay on top of your trade payments & settlements ,read more.
Financial Services
DiMuto helps to protect your trades with insurance, read more.
How DiMuto Helps
DiMuto’s Pre-Shipment Quality & Trade Info
DiMuto’s Inspection Module
DiMuto makes all parts of the trade easily visible and accessible to relevant teams within the Retailer.With Trade Management, the commercial, QC, shipping team can access pertinent trade documents and data.
DiMuto’s Inspection and Standard Management
DiMuto Inspection Management helps digitalize the QC process and allows a more efficient way to standardize, record and evaluate quality inspections for optimal product quality.
DiMuto Creates Trade Visibility for “The Messy Middle”
DiMuto’s Accessibility of Pre-Shipment and Post-Shipment Quality
With DiMuto, Retailers can now enjoy accessible visibility of pre-shipment and post-shipment quality to better manage any potential loss of sales
Pre-shipment product quality down to every single carton easily accessible to commercial team
Trade information, documents and actions of each trade seamlessly recorded and presented in timeline view
Post-shipment product quality efficiently captured and communicated between QC, commercial and retail teams
Dashboard view of Inspection Management to ensure optimal product quality and vendor performance
If you are interested to learn more about how DiMuto helps Agri-Food businesses leverage on an increased visibility of Pre-Shipment and Post-Shipment Product Quality, please reach us here or drop us an email at sales@dimuto.io.
How Blockchain, AI and IoT Simplifies AgriFood Product Quality for a more efficient, sustainable and transparent food supply chain
In today’s society, AgriFood trading practices have evolved to keep up with consumer demands of high quality, safe and sustainable food products. A key tool to help AgriFood businesses to meet this demand is blockchain.
The use of blockchain technology has become an essential tool to ensure efficiency and transparency for AgriFood trade transactions. Additionally, understanding food provenance is becoming more prevalent among end-consumers, making it critical for AgriFood businesses to better understand, manage and communicate product movement from farm to fork.
What is blockchain technology?
Blockchain is a shared distributed ledger technology that allows users to share verified, immutable information with each other. In this way, blockchain helps agrifood supply chain stakeholders to share trusted information with each other for each trade transaction, allowing the tracking of food provenance and the building of a more visible, efficient and transparent supply chain.
Blockchain can be used for applications such as improving food quality control throughout AgriFood supply chains.
Using Blockchain, AI and IoT to Improve Product Quality Control
Studies have shown that fruits and vegetables are thrown away due to unsuitable storage and shipment conditions. For instance, in Central and Southern Asia, losses in transport can be as much as 30% of the overall yield, a huge amount of waste.
As AgriFood products are transported along the food supply chain, they often take different routes and go through numerous handlers. This means that the ability to track the produce across the supply chain is challenging, making it difficult to ensure optimal product quality. This is particularly critical in the fresh produce industry where ensuring quality is key to maximizing shelf life.
The challenges that AgriFood businesses need to overcome to assure product quality are:
Processing large quantities of trade, product and document information
Underutilizing valuable technology
Keeping track of product information
Optimizing processes that ascertain product quality information
How DiMuto uses Blockchain, AI and IoT to ensure Product Quality
DiMuto uses blockchain technology along with Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to determine product quality in an objective and simplified manner.
DiMuto transforms the way of assuring product quality by following four steps:
Utilizing IoT technology in our Digitial Asset Creation (DACKY) Devices to capture product data, down to every single carton, throughout the supply chain
Organizing the collected data to be accessible, readable and understandable by different users on our Trade Solutions Platform
Enhancing the collected data with more insights using AI
Data gets saved on the blockchain to ensure immutability
DiMuto DACKY devices capturing pre-shipment carton information at various packing facilities.
Visual Images of each carton of AgriFood product is then automatically uploaded onto the DiMuto Platform, and associated with each trade transaction so that the product, quality control and sales teams across the AgriFood organization can access these data easily.
DiMuto AI and Machine Learning then enhances the information gathered to provide useful insights using predictive models and analysis, this process will procure important product information to assess on its quality score:
Product Identification
Product Size
Product Quantity
Product Quality
Watch the above video to learn how DiMuto uses AI to determine pre and post shipment product quality
The insightful data will be stored on the blockchain, ensuring security and immutability through a decentralized node network.
There is a risk of a single point of failure with the current practice of keeping important information in a centralized server. The data in blockchain, on the other hand, is spread among all nodes in the network. As a result, it prohibits the system from being controlled by a central authority. Thus, accessibility to product quality information is invariably simple and secure.
This will help to determine the product quality of AgriFood products in a more efficient manner, helping AgriFood businesses to better control food quality at various stages of the supply chain.
With DiMuto’s solution, AgriFood companies can reduce food wastage due to more visible, efficient and reliable product quality controls along the supply chain and take the next step towards food sustainability.
If you are interested to learn more about how DiMuto helps AgriFood companies to utilize blockchain and other technology for a more efficient and sustainable supply chain, please reach us here or drop us an email at sales@dimuto.io.
[PRESS RELEASE]
AgriFood Trade Solution DiMuto Raises US$2.35million Series A Funding to Advance Its Global Network and Agri-financial Services
DiMuto, a global AgriFood trade solutions company from Singapore, bags US$2.35million in Series A funding led by The Yield Lab Asia Pacific. The Yield Lab is joined by SEEDS Capital, the investment arm of Enterprise Singapore, PT Great Giant Pineapple, Patrick Vizzone, Ocean Crests Investments, and Asia Capital Pioneers Group. Existing investors include SGInnovate and Latin Leap. DiMuto is also a portfolio company of PwC Singapore’s Venture Hub’s programme.
The latest funding validates recent progress and significant market opportunity, enabling DiMuto to scale up product development and meet growing demand for AgriFood trade visibility and trade financing.
DiMuto’s AgriFood trade solution unifies product, document and payments on a single platform, tracking the flow of goods along with respective flow of payments and creating a data-driven foundation for business visibility, trade financing, and insurance.
DiMuto’s AgriFood financing services tackle the US$1.9 Trillion global trade finance gap, estimated by experts to be as high as US$3.4 Trillion due to Covid-19, by making trade financing accessible to unbanked Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in AgriFood trade thathave long faced difficulties accessing formal financing due to factors like creditworthiness, collateral requirements, short-term liquidity, and political or currency risk.
By using proprietary technology developed using blockchain, cloud, IoT and AI to create combined visibility between movement of goods and movement of money on DiMuto Platform, DiMuto enables primary data collection for valuable insights allowing AgriFood business leaders to better manage their supply chain in a more efficient and sustainable manner.
Singapore, 21 September 2021 – DiMuto, a global AgriFood trade solutions company that provides end-to-end supply chain visibility for global AgriFood trade, today announced its successful US$2.35million Series A raise. This round was led by globally prominent AgTech investor The Yield Lab Asia Pacific with participation from SEEDS Capital, the investment arm of Enterprise Singapore, PT Great Giant Pineapple, Patrick Vizzone, Ocean Crest Investments and Asia Capital Pioneers Group. This round follows DiMuto’s pre-series funding in 2019 and 2020, which saw investments from SGInnovate and Latin Leap.
The Series A raise validates the company’s recent progress and significant market opportunity, despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Funds raised will enable DiMuto to scale up product development and meet the growing demand for AgriFood trade visibility as well as trade financing.
Creating product and data visibility for global AgriFood trade, DiMuto offers AgriFood supply chain stakeholders such as farmers, packers, exporters, traders, wholesalers, and retailers the ability to see the flow of goods and the flow of money associated with the flow of goods on a single Super Platform. DiMuto effectively adds value by providing business intelligence with its ecosystem of applications and modules so that AgriFood companies can optimize their operations. The Super Platform generates up to 30% price premiums for traceable products as well as reduces up to 50% losses arising from trade disputes for its customers.
“DiMuto was really born out of my dual experiences of operating in the Finance world for 15 years and operating a global fresh fruits and vegetables marketer and distributor. During my ten-year stint in the food industry, I realized there’s an urgent need for business leaders to be able to see all aspects of their business right down to the granular detail of each box, each payment, and each receipt, as well as see the auxiliary service providers supporting their operations. Being able to capture and have the visual confirmation of such business data on a single platform helps business leaders run the organization better,” said Gary Loh, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of DiMuto.
DiMuto’s AgriFood trade solutions offer greater visibility through end-to-end global food supply chains, providing AgriFood business leaders with actionable insights that help them better manage their supply chain, both more efficiently and more sustainably. Complex yet siloed food supply chains have made it challenging for companies to maximize value from their supply chains and ensure adherence to green and sustainable practices. Globally, as revealed by a study from logistics company GEODIS, as many as 62% of companies worldwide have limited visibility of their supply chain, with only 15% of companies having visibility on “just in time” production and only 6% reporting full visibility.
“The Yield Lab is always looking for high-impact start-ups with technology solutions that sustainably revolutionizes the Global AgriFood system. The benefits achieved in finding new innovation to increase yield in food production can only be felt if that food that is harvested, and processed, enters an efficient supply chain. The need for transparency of trade from farm to fork has long been discussed and desired, but yet still is not widely adopted. What DiMuto has developed is technology that affordably integrates data into actionable insights, tracking the state of the trade while simultaneously providing meaningful value to each of the different constituents along the supply chain. For the retailers, distributors, insurers, and the providers of transportation and with trade financing, with DiMuto finally a safe, efficient, accountable, and sustainable supply chain is now within everyone’s reach” said Claire Pribula, Co-founder and Managing Director of The Yield Lab Asia Pacific. “The fragility of global supply chains was made evident at the height of the COVID pandemic, causing significant supply chain disruptions. DiMuto provides the ability to smooth out irregularities, increasing the shelf life and diminishing food waste.”
“Asia Capital Pioneers Group sees immense potential for trade technology solutions like DiMuto. There are also synergies with our investment in payments fintech Aleta Planet, whose account issuance capabilities can power DiMuto’s e-wallet, to plug the payment component within DiMuto’s ecosystem. We believe this can be scaled to a much larger audience across the globe and are excited to be a part of this avant-garde technology,” said Mr. Ryan Gwee, Chairman of Asia Capital Pioneers Group.
With its Produce, Trade and Market modules, DiMuto provides visibility on product quality, documents, and payment records for each stage of the supply chain. From pre-shipment farm production through to post-shipment product receipts, DiMuto enables AgriFood companies to fully see their supply chain, providing essential quantitative data that helps them to monitor and manage Environmental, Social and Governmental (ESG) risks across their global supply chains. The ability to capture and organize such data also helps DiMuto’s financing services to verify that ESG standards are met as part of its green finance and impact investing initiative.
“PT Great Giant Pineapple prides ourselves on our green agricultural practices and putting our farmers at the heart of what we do. Having the ability to visualise our operations all on a single platform will certainly enable a global company like ours to better run our business and improve on our mission. We believe that data visibility and supply chain digitalization is the next forefront of the AgriFood industry, and we are excited to support the application of DiMuto’s solutions,” said Husodo Angkosubroto, majority shareholder of PT Great Giant Pineapple. PT Great Giant Pineapple is one of the top three producers of pineapples worldwide supplying of the world’s canned pineapples, with businesses involving fresh produce distribution and export as well.
By using its proprietary technology developed using IOT, cloud, blockchain and AI to create combined visibility between movement of goods and movement of money on the DiMuto Platform, The Company has further developed its own Proprietary Visual Inspection Module to help standardise the specification of fresh produce using AI. DiMuto thus enables primary data collection for valuable insights allowing AgriFood business leaders to better manage their supply chain in a more efficient and sustainable manner.
DiMuto’s unique ability to digitalize and unify product, document and payment on a single platform helps form a more accurate profile of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that is data-driven, and trade-centric, enabling SMEs to access alternative trade financing opportunities. Globally, the current US$1.9 Trillion trade finance gap is estimated, by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), to increase to US$3.4 trillion due to Covid-19. The trade financing gap has hit SMEs the hardest, with over 40% of trade finance applications by SMEs being rejected, as stated by Asian Development Bank (ADB). Despite being the largest contributor to the economy and employment, SMEs struggle to obtain financing from traditional institutions, due to factors such as creditworthiness, collateral requirements, short-term liquidity, and political or currency risks. Helping to counter these factors, DiMuto has developed its proprietary TRADE HEALTH AI module to generate a grading score and a credit score to manage the credit risk of the trade. Based on this, DiMuto will be able to fill the trade financing gap by offering financing for its AgriFood customers.
Despite Covid-19, DiMuto has executed implementations in Indonesia, China, South Africa, Ghana, Malaysia, Kenya, and Colombia over the last six months, with 25 more projects in the pipeline. The company has specifically designed their proprietary digitalization devices, otherwise known as a Digital Asset Creation device (DACKY), in the form of a flyaway kit that enables implementation on the ground to be easily completed in as short as one week.
“I am truly humbled and honoured to have such a broad group of stakeholders, resulting in a unique combination of people and organization to solve a truly global problem of food waste and trade visibility. By removing the friction and inefficiency, we are focusing the use of data to truly build a more Green and sustainable future,” Loh adds. In the near future, the company expects rapid growth with existing and new client partners, providing DiMuto with a key opportunity to expand DiMuto’s portfolio and trade financing applications. -end-
About The Yield Lab The Yield Lab Asia Pacific is an AgTech focused fund and part of the global The Yield Lab network of regional Funds based in North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific. Created in 2014 as the first early-stage Seed and Series A fund devoted to identifying and advancing Agriculture industry innovation. Managed by industry experienced teams who have the knowledge, relationships and vision to stimulate, invest and scale sustainable AgTech innovations, The Yield Lab invests across all Agriculture sectors: Crop Production, Animal Health, Precision Agriculture, Sustainability, Supply Chain and Food Ingredients, in order to deliver financial results alongside positive impacts that solve the global problem of feeding 10B people by 2050 sustainably. For further information please visit: www.theyieldlab.asia
About SEEDS Capital As the investment arm of Enterprise Singapore, SEEDS Capital catalyses smart investments into innovative Singapore-based startups with strong intellectual content and global market potential. We co-invest with independent investors in innovative startups. We help our startups commercialize and expand globally through leveraging on the expertise and strategic networks of our co-investment partners in areas such as technology translation, commercialization and market expansion. Through co-investments, SEEDS Capital aims to catalyze investments into nascent and strategic sectors. These include Advanced Manufacturing & Engineering, Health & Biomedical Sciences, Urban Solutions & Sustainability, and Services & Digital Economy.
About PT Great Giant Pineapple PT Great Giant Pineapple (GGP) has become the largest private label manufacturer of canned pineapples in the world and a prominent source of premium pineapples and fresh fruits. The company currently exports more than 15,000 containers to over 60 countries worldwide and has a representative company in the USA, Singapore, Japan, and South Korea. Boasting extensive plantations, one in every four canned pineapples in the world today originates from GGP. Aside from canned pineapple, pineapple jam, pineapple cubes in cups, and pineapple juice concentrate, GGP also produce canned tropical fruit cocktail. For further information, visit www.greatgiantpineapple.com
About Asia Capital Pioneers Group Founded in 2011, Asia Capital Pioneers Group started as a Hong Kong-based family office to provide wealth management and legacy planning for some of Asia’s wealthiest families. It has developed a reputation of delivering above-market returns for its clients, through global investments within high growth industries such as real estate and fintech. As the controlling shareholder for several investments such as Songdo International Business District and payments fintech Aleta Planet, Asia Capital Pioneers Group has leveraged its management expertise, global connections, and business know-how to multiply the value of its investments. It also seeks to identify cross-synergies between its investment vehicles for greater efficiencies and business growth. For further information, visit www.asiacapitalpg.com
About DiMuto DiMuto simplifies every step of global AgriFood trade. From produce, to trade, to market, our AgriFood Trade Solutions help growers, exporters and importers to trade efficiently with better visibility and finance. Equipped with a data-backed growth roadmap, companies can now navigate the complex global trade landscape with ease and focus on what matters – growing a thriving international business. With Visible Trade, DiMuto powers companies and the world forward with confidence. Since 2019, DiMuto has successfully tracked and traced millions of pieces of produce and millions in dollars of trade value on the DiMuto platform, working with a global portfolio of clients in over ten countries on 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 ## For media queries, please contact: HuiMin Lee Email: huimin@dimuto.io
[Joint Press Release DiMuto – OPAL]
DiMuto and OPAL Announce Agrifood Fintech Partnership to Tackle Trillion Dollar Global Trade Finance Gap
DiMuto, a global trade solutions platform, joins forces with OPAL, a Major Payment Institution (MPI) providing money transfer solutions, to conduct agrifood trade payments on the blockchain
The partnership will see a DiMuto Payment module that allows direct payment on the DiMuto Platform, enabling visibility of movement of money according to trades conducted and tracked on the platform
The new payment module will leverage OPAL’s expertise in payment and financing solutions for SMEs that include multi-currency cross-border transactions, with highly competitive Fx rates that is cheaper than conventional methods, as well as ability to conduct safe and secure transactions to over 100 countries
The digital payments collaboration between the two firms will form the foundation for DiMuto’s trade financing solution targeted at servicing unbanked Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the agri-perishable sector
Covid-19 has worsened the US$1.9 trillion global trade finance gap, estimated by experts to be as high as US$3.4 trillion now, with SMEs in emerging economies being hardest hit. SMEs have long faced difficulties accessing formal financing due to factors like creditworthiness, collateral requirements, short-term liquidity, and political or currency risk.
By using technology like blockchain, cloud, IoT and AI to create combined visibility between movement of goods and movement of money on DiMuto Platform, DiMuto enables primary data collection for valuable insights into trade health and credit score, reducing financing risks and making trade financing more accessible for SMEs.
Singapore, 26 April 2021 – DiMuto, a global agri-fintech trade solutions company that provides end-to-end supply chain visibility for global agrifood trade, has partnered with OPAL, a Major Payment Institution (MPI) licensed by Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), to provide payment services on the blockchain-powered DiMuto Platform. The two companies are collaborating to bring together the strengths of both companies to innovate and transform the future of payments and financing in the agrifood trade space. Working together provides an exciting opportunity to leverage OPAL’s expertise in international payment, multi- currency wallets, FX management and financing solutions alongside DiMuto’s strong network of agrifood clientele, robust trade digitalization technology and capability to collect asset- based data.
DiMuto and OPAL will develop a new first-of-its-kind payment module that will allow DiMuto’s agrifood customers to make payments directly tagged to the movement of goods on the DiMuto Platform, creating visibility of both the movement of goods and money for physical agrifood products tracked with DiMuto’s existing trade digitalization technology.
The DiMuto Payment module taps on OPAL’s expertise in servicing SMEs with payment and financing solutions. OPAL aims to be One Account for Payments and Loans (OPAL) for SMEs, by simplifying payment processes, lowering fees and providing easier access to financing. OPAL is able to facilitate safe and secure cross-border transactions in over 100 financial corridors with multi-currency accounts and competitive Fx rates that are cheaper than conventional banking methods. With the new DiMuto Payment module, DiMuto’s agrifood customers will be able to conduct transactions that are in full compliance with Singapore regulations and international AML/CFT standards.
“We are excited to bring our experience in the financial, payments and technology industry to the collaboration with DiMuto. The partnership gives OPAL an opportunity to reach more small and medium businesses globally, particularly in the agrifood and perishables trade, that have not been serviced by traditional banking institutions. We look forward to helping them accelerate their growth with complex payments made easy,” said Lim Ming Wang, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of OPAL.
The digital payments collaboration establishes the first step to DiMuto’s trade financing solution for the unbanked SMEs in the agri-perishables sector that have traditionally been unable to access financing from conventional banking institutions. Despite being the largest contributors to employment and economic development, SMEs have struggled to obtain formal financing, due to factors including creditworthiness, collateral requirements, short- term liquidity, and political or currency risks. Asian Development Bank (ADB) found that over 40% of trade finance applications by SMEs are rejected and the global trade finance gap is a staggering US$1.5 trillion in 2019 and is projected by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) to increase to US$3.4 trillion due to Covid-19. The exponential trade finance gap impedes the effort to reduce poverty and minimize inequality, two of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
By capturing and developing primary trade data through trade digitalization, DiMuto effectively reduces the risks associated with trade financing. With both visibility of movement of physical goods and movement of money on the DiMuto Platform, DiMuto can now further develop data-driven agrifood asset financing.
“At DiMuto, our vision is to power global agrifood trade with visibility. We have built a powerful platform that combines IoT, cloud, blockchain, and AI technology in our journey to bring visibility to global trade,” said Gary Loh, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of DiMuto. “By partnering OPAL to enable direct payments on our platform, we are moving closer to this goal as this creates a complete solution tying the movement of goods to the movement of money. With this, we can transform global trade by tackling the financing needs of the unbanked agrifood market.”
The partnership between DiMuto and OPAL will enable trade that traditional trade finance cannot effectively support. DiMuto is implementing AI, machine learning capabilities, and new predictive analytic algorithms for valuable insights into the trade health and credit score of agrifood companies to develop alternative financing and insurance services for the global agrifood market.
Lim Ming Wang, Co-Founder and COO of OPAL, with Gary Loh, Founder and CEO of DiMuto at the MoU Signing Ceremony
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About OPAL
OPAL is a leading provider of end-to-end, regulated payment solutions based on a robust, proven platform and proprietary technology. Founded by a team of seasoned professionals with significant experience in financial solutions, banking, regulatory issues, cross-border payments and money management, OPAL offers a broad set of financial solutions to help clients meet their diverse needs in today’s ever-changing financial and business environment. OPAL is licensed as a Major Payment Institution (MPI) by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
DiMuto provides agrifood companies with data they can see and trust, down to every single product of every trade, where they can easily see all that is happening for every trade transaction in an organized manner, on one single platform.
DiMuto simplifies every step of global trade – from produce, trade to market, DiMuto provide sales, marketing, operations, financing and insurance tools so businesses can trade better. Equipped with a data-backed growth roadmap, companies can now navigate the complex global trade landscape with ease and focus on what matters – growing a thriving international business.
With Visible Trade, DiMuto powers companies and the world forward with confidence.
Since 2019, DiMuto has successfully tracked and traced over millions of pieces in produce and millions in dollars of trade value on our platform, working with a global portfolio of clients in over ten 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.
It has been a year of living with the Covid-19 pandemic, and it has impacted consumer preferences and business practices when it comes to food sustainability and food labelling.
Clean Labels are a key trend this year – As countries around the world enter various states of lockdowns, more consumers are looking to buy healthier, more sustainable foods to cook at home, turning their attention to food labels for information on the origin and ingredients. Between 2013 and 2018, sales of products with sustainability claims increased 29%, according to a study by NYU Stern center for Sustainable Businesses and IRI.
Consumer’s Distrust of Sustainable Labels
Yet, consumers are not finding the information they need or trust on the labels. In Singapore, while 35% of consumers are willing to pay a premium for sustainable alternatives, 23% do not trust the sustainability claims of businesses. In the US, a FoodThink study showed nearly half of consumers who regularly buy food for their households do not trust the industry to do the right thing. Worldwide, due to the lack of transparent product-level information, there has been increased skepticism amongst consumers that brands are simply greenwashing their products.
This problem is evidenced by the low level of influence current sustainable label packaging has on consumer food choices. Research has shown that while consumers view sustainability as an important issue, when it comes to individual food choices, sustainable logos do not play a major role in consumers’ food choices.
One explanation for this curious paradox might be that consumers do not trust current sustainability labels. In his book Organic: a journalist’s quest to discover the truth behind food labeling, Peter Laufer details how sustainability labels are hardly regulated and untransparent, making it difficult for consumers to verify these labels.
Sustainability Certification is Not Enough
At the same time, the disruption of global food supply chains caused by the pandemic has renewed the impetus for businesses to make their supply chains more sustainable and resilient. Increasingly, they are turning to certifications as a way to show consumers that they are taking active steps to address sustainability.
While effective in ensuring the adoption of more sustainable practices in certified entities, it is clear that sustainable certification alone is not enough.
Due to the complexity of modern food supply chains, there is an inherent disconnect between sustainability practices done on the upstream at the farm, and the product data that the end consumers at the tail end of the supply chain receives. There is thus a need for fully transparent sustainability labels that is able to show sufficient provenance information.
DiMuto Traceability Labels
With DiMuto, agrifood companies can now track food products from farm to fork, combining the physical product movement along with documentation.
This visibility can be achieved down to each individual product and carton, by labelling every product and carton with the DiMuto Traceability Label. Product movement through critical supply chain milestones like the packing, transport and receiving stages is then tracked on the blockchain and combined with relevant certificates and trade documents. This ensures an immutable, holistic view of product provenance.
DiMuto Traceability label
All these traceability information tracked can be easily communicated to consumers using the same label. By simply scanning the DiMuto QR code on food products like fresh fruits and produce, consumers are brought to DiMuto SMART Marketing Product Page, where they can now view the DiMuto Product Passport.
The DiMuto Product Passport
With the DiMuto Product Passport, consumers are able to access a passport showing verified, important provenance data related to the product that they just purchased. Supply chain data tracked on the blockchain-powered DiMuto Platform can now be succinctly shared as part of the DiMuto SMART Marketing Product Page.
DiMuto Product Passport
They can view and verify product-related certificates such as organic certifications using the Singapore-government backed third-part validation tool TradeTrust. (To learn more about how DiMuto uses TradeTrust, click here) Consumers can also access the product movement timeline showing each supply chain milestone.
Not only so, the SMART Marketing Product Page allows brands to do more than just share verified traceability data. Brands can also communicate their brand story, sharing more regarding where the fruit was grown, and how the process is organic, sustainable or fair-trade, and even get feedback or host campaigns on the same page.
DiMuto SMART Marketing
With this, agrifood businesses can now easily communicate their product-level traceability information to end consumers. DiMuto can help companies improve consumers’ trust in their sustainability labels. It is likely we will see more consumers make sustainable food choices with transparent, verified sustainability labels, helping to make the global food supply a truly sustainable one.
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If you are interested to learn more about our solutions, please contact sales@dimuto.io.
The Problem with Trade Documents in Global Trade
In today’s digital age, it may be surprising that the document trail for international trade is still very much physical.
Due to the complex nature of cross-border trade transactions, there are often many different parties involved across multiple geographies involved, most of whom use fragmented systems that do not harmonize with each other. The continuance of paper-based processes persists because currently there is no easy way to verify the authenticity of these trade documents.
Manual, physical documents are the default for international trade
Time and money spent on paperwork continues to be a significant cost of conducting cross-border trade – Research done by IBM and Maersk has shown that the costs associated with trade documents processing can cost up to one-fifth of the actual physical transportation costs. Today, exporters need to dispatch the physical documents to consignee in their destination markets, despite having already sent the documents on other digital channels like emails and messaging applications. Thus, it is not uncommon that the goods can be shipped faster than the documents are processed.
The usage of physical trade documents inherently poses a high level of risk, mainly from falsified documentation. According to CNBC article, there has been a rise in falsified trade documents in the last five to ten years. High-tech photocopiers can duplicate trade documents like the bill of lading, in the original ink colours, and add fake information.
Due to the difficulty of distinguishing the real documents from forged ones, fake documents can be used to obtain loans from the banks and increases the risks for all involved parties including legitimate buyers and financial institutions providing trade financing services. The 2020 high-profile case of trade finance fraud by Hin Leong Trading, a Singaporean oil trading company that allegedly forged an email and documents, is proof that reliance on physical documents is a huge vulnerability. The adeptness of forgers are forcing banks like OCBC to look into going digital and using blockchain for the US$9 trillion global trade finance industry.
What is TradeTrust?
Together with the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the Singapore government launched TradeTrust, a set of globally-accepted standards and frameworks that is connected to a public blockchain supporting the exchange of electronic trade documents between governments and businesses.
TradeTrust aims to digitalize global trade and eliminate the inefficiencies caused by manual trade documents and verification processes. TradeTrust works to ensure there is legal harmonisation across multiple countries and jurisdiction for legal validity of digital trade documents, and promote internationally accepted standards that facilitates interoperability of digital documents exchanged across platforms.
Most recently, the Australian Border Force (ABF) started a blockchain trial with Singapore Customs and Singapore Infocomm media Development Authority (IMDA) to digitally verify electronic Certificates of Origin (COO).
How DiMuto uses TradeTrust
The Tradetrust verification is integrated onto the DiMuto Platform. Trade documents that are uploaded onto the DiMuto Platform are automatically pushed onto TradeTrust, allowing users and relevant parties to verify the authenticity of their documents.
When a trade document is uploaded on the DiMuto platform, it is identified uniquely by a Document Hash and saved as a signed TradeTrust JSON file – this JSON file serves as a unique fingerprint that is then recorded on the public Ethereum blockchain.
DiMuto’s Trade Contract Timeline captures the documents uploaded and our platform automatically creates a TradeTrust identifier that can be easily verified
This record will be visible on the DiMuto platform to users and relevant trade parties, who can then drag and drop this JSON file onto tradetrust.io and verify the file.
Users will be able to see that a DiMuto certificate of authenticity that verifies the document has been uploaded on the blockchain
Due to the usage of the public blockchain, this allows any relevant parties that have this JSON.file to verify the validity of the trade document on TradeTrust, creating greater level of trust in digital trade documents. By integrating TradeTrust onto our system, DiMuto helps to create trust between trade partners and strengthens the validity of the digital trade documents.
This can help government agencies and authorities that issue certificates and want to verify the validity of these certificates. For instance, agricultural ministries that issue Certificate of Origins, and global certification bodies like the Global G.A.P that is recognized in over 100 countries, can simply utilize TradeTrust verification tool to verify certificates that have been uploaded on the DiMuto platform. Due to the unique identifying quality of the TradeTrust file, as well as the immutability from using the public blockchain, this can significantly reduce the room for fraudulent certification and speed up the time it takes to verify certificates, reducing the friction brought about by physical documents for global trade.
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If you are interested to learn more about our solutions, please contact sales@dimuto.io.
It is likely that the pandemic will not be resolved overnight in its second year running. While Covid-19 has caused disruptive shocks to global food supply chains around the world at first, more lasting effects of the virus can definitely be felt on the agricultural and agtech landscape for the rest of 2021.
Renewed Focus on Sustainability
Sustainability and sustainable recovery are the latest buzzwords when it comes to discussion on how a post-covid world would look like, given the mainstream thought that climate change may have played a contributing role to the rise of the pandemic – many factors that cause climate change increases the risk of pandemics according to Harvard Chan C-CHANGE.
For consumers, this has translated to an increased focus on sustainable foods and clean labels.
Research by Palsgaard A/S has shown that four in ten consumers view environmental concerns are now more important when making food purchases since covid-19, and that two-thirds of consumers would be more willing to buy products from a company if they knew it used sustainably sourced ingredients.
Consumer reading food label at the supermarket
At the same time, there has been more consumer demand for clean label foods, foods that are made as naturally as possible with simple, easily recognizable ingredients that are produced in a manner that is healthy for the planet as well.
According to Mordor Intelligence, sales of clean label ingredients are projected to grow 6.75% annually to $51.1 billion by 2024, with the impact of COVID-19 pushing sales figures higher.
This will likely see suppliers and manufacturers ramp up on sustainability in their sourcing, production and supply chain processes, and communicating this to consumers through branding and marketing in 2021 and beyond.
Doubling Down on Food Traceability & “Messy Middle” Supply Chain
Covid-19 food scares have been aplenty since the pandemic’s onset, with China halting imports of European salmon after traces of the coronavirus had been found on chopping boards used for imported salmon at the Xinfadi market, commonly thought to be the epicentre of the initial outbreak.
That caused Chinese consumers to avoid salmon, hitting the industry hard.
Fresh Cherries
Most recently in January this year, there were claims on Chinese social media that Chilean cherries contained traces of the virus. The inner packaging of the batch of cherries tested covid-19 positive, and all unsold cherries from the same batch in Wuxi, the Jiangsu Province, have been collected and are ready for destruction, which could potentially result in massive food waste.
Although there still exists much uncertainty over the validity of these claims and the origins of the affected cherries, the whole imported fruits industry in China has been badly affected. In particular, cherry prices have plunged 90% and sellers have to resort to showing certificates of nucleic acid tests to help boost sales.
Thus, blockchain and its application for recording verified, immutable information from all stakeholders of the supply chain will definitely be a contender as part of the solution.
At the same time, product digitization will need to happen in order for food traceability to be fully effective. This gives industry players the ability to confirm the quality of the product as it moves along the supply chain, particularly through the “Messy Middle”.
Fintech For Food
It is no secret that working capital is a source of friction in global food trade. Due to the seasonality of the industry, agribusinesses have significant short-term working capital needs in the form of advances to farmers and huge inventory.
We’ve previously talked about how supply chain visibility is vital for cash flow management of agribusinesses in Covid-19. At the same time, this supply chain visibility also has potential for tapping on the unbanked or underbanked Messy Middle agribusinesses, who often are unable to obtain financing for their trades due to the industry being deemed too risky, too complex and opaque, and provide them alternative financing opportunities.
Technologies like blockchain, digital wallets and e-currencies also help to establish trust and facilitate transparency that break down the barriers to trade financing access for the agriculture industry. These have already made headway in terms of smallholder farmer financing, but the biggest potential lie in the Messy Middle, where the bulk of goods exchange hands and the biggest challenges lie. For instance, this can help small and medium traders and retailers, who often find it difficult to sustain business during covid, to get access to credit.
It is also telling of the potential of blockchain when the likes of governments, such as in Singapore and China, have also recently committed to significant resources to develop blockchain capabilities of their country.
The overall undercurrent theme for 2021 seems to be data, where visibility of flow of goods and flow of money needs to be achieved, so that we can really ensure that our food systems are efficient and visible, and that food is sustainable and safe for both people and planet.
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If you are interested to learn more about our solutions, please contact sales@dimuto.io.
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