With growing demand for transparency and traceability of global food supply chains – the Food Traceability market is estimated to be worth as much as US$9.28billion by 2028, it is no wonder that there has been much data-driven innovation in the AgriFood sector. There has also been increasing recognition of the need for a digitalized food system, particularly in the wake of Covid.
However, critical digital and physical documentation required to conduct AgriFood trade continues to be disseminated, recorded and stored in an inefficient, disconnected and unsecure manner across the various stakeholders in the AgriFood supply chain.
Importance of Trusted Supply Chain TradeDocuments in AgriFood Trade
Agriculture and food commerce are more complicated than manufacturing trade because trade standards are more stringent, documentation is more cumbersome, and logistics are more complicated – these are often necessary to ensure consumer food safety. For food safety, detailed information on traded items as well as the movement of goods in a supply chain is vital and these challenges have been exacerbated by the rise in e-commerce.
Thus, the need for trusted digital documents showing the food safety status and traceability data of food products is needed more than ever. For instance, in lieu of the pandemic, China has implemented strict policies on food imports and even banned imported fruits and salmon from specific ports. For AgriFood companies dealing with food import-exports, being able to efficiently and effectively store digital documents and trade information and ensure its validity and authenticity in crucial to ensure trust in the provenance of their food products.
How Can AgriFood Businesses Be Assured of the Security of Their Uploaded Documents?
Data breaches, document forgeries, and fraudulence have become a pressing issue for digital documents on the web or businesses’ private platforms. It is crucial to note that although there are several methods for digitizing documents and storing digital documents, the security and efficiency of such methods may not be as seamless and transparent as one might think.
Current communications occur over different communications platforms such as social messaging apps and emails, causing crucial trade information and documents to be scattered and stored inefficiently, making it challenging for AgriFood companies to ensure timely verification of these documents, or store and retrieve them securely.
How DiMuto Helps – DiMuto Creates Trade Visibility for “The Messy Middle”
With DiMuto, Retailers and Suppliers can now enjoy greater visibility of all their trade data. Product, document and payment data are all tracked on a single platform. Suppliers, Traders and Retailers are able to easily access all relevant trade documents which are automatically uploaded onto the blockchain, ensuring immutable records of the trade action and documents.
In addition to utilizing the blockchain to build trust, DiMuto utilizes Dedoco, a decentralized digital signing platform on blockchain, to further authenticate trade documents.
How DiMuto Authenticates Trade Documents on the Platform with Dedoco
AgriFood Trade documents on DiMuto are further authenticated with Dedoco’s blockchain-enabled electronic signature platform to increase the credibility of digital documents. Documents are readily signed using Dedoco and registered with a unique blockchain hash when they are published to the DiMuto platform. Documents’ signatures can also be verified Dedoco web.
Digital Documents will require signatures that are then embedded with a blockchain hash
With blockchain-verified signatures that act as a guarantee of document authencity, DiMuto ensures credibility of every trade transaction – removing barriers such as security risks, fraudulence, and forgery of documents. DiMuto’s All-in-One trade management platform helps strengthen trust and confidence among AgriFood players in the food supply chain.
If you are interested to learn more about how DiMuto ensures trust for global AgriFood trade transactions, talk to our sales team today at sales@dimuto.io and find out how DiMuto can support your journey to better trade visibility. www.dimuto.io
Cross-border Transactions Today
In 2020, the market growth for international payments reached an all-time high with forecasted revenues of $2Trillion USD, according to a recent forecast by Smarter Payments Tracker. However, research has shown that only 1% of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) use digital finance successfully, even though SMEs represent and more than 50% of employment worldwide.
Add that to the complex regulations and infrastructure of cross-border payment systems today, it is no wonder that moving money across borders is still far from an efficient and easy process. This problem will only become more pertinent as the role of SMEs in the global economy continues to grow. Challenges faced when conducting cross-border payments include:
Country-specific regulations
Slow processing of transactions
Expensive costs
Security concerns
Lack of visibility
Country-specific rules have impeded international payments, and transactions routed through intermediate institutions can take days to complete and typically come with costs. Due to the numerous intermediaries involved in transferring money from one nation to another, all of which collect fees for their services, cross-border payments are notoriously expensive. Regulatory costs pile up, and FX fees for converting one currency to another will be levied. Compounding this is the lack of clarity when it comes to remittance fee structures.
Additionally, unlike near-instantaneous domestic payments, traditional cross-border bank transfers typically involve numerous exchanges of hands in one transaction and take two to five days to process, making it difficult to expect payments on time.
On top of that, high-level security breaches in cross-border payment systems are common, as evidenced by the $81 Million theft on Bangladesh’s central bank in 2016. As each country has its own set of rules, the cross-border payment system is vulnerable to hacking whenever funds enter a country with lax security and access policies.
As each country has its own set of rules, the cross-border payment system is vulnerable to hacking whenever funds enter a country with lax security and access policies.
Another core concern of businesses making cross-border payments is the lack of visibility of payment status. according to a poll conducted by SWIFT and EuroFinance in 2017, 64 percent of businesses desire real-time payment tracking capabilities, while 47 percent want improved insight into the costs and deductions involved.
With the longstanding lack of real-time tracking of payment status, businesses often do not have certainty of transaction status. When companies need to know the current status of a payment, they are dependent on operations specialists undertaking manual research to ascertain basic information. Payment inquiries must be directed through correspondent banks, then communicated back to clients to determine any necessary actions. This lack of transparency creates a high informational cost, undermines corporate cash flow forecasts, and can strain relationships with a client’s suppliers and busines partners when funds are not received as expected.
For AgriFood companies with a significant portion of business in export-import trade, the ability to conduct and manage payment transactions across borders in an efficient, secure and visible manner is a concern. The risks of cross-border payments today are especially great for AgriFood companies dealing with a high volume of international trade transactions where one container of fresh produce can easily amount to an average cost of USD$50,000 to 150,000.
A need for trade-centric payment management in global AgriFood Trade
In global AgriFood Trade, there’s not only a need for cross-border payment methods to have less friction but have a trade-centric perspective as well. This is because product movement is dependent on a multitude of factors and delays and changes in timelines are commonplace. Trade disputes involving quality issues are typical and can cause upwards of 5-15% of trade value.
Trade Dispute Due to Poor Product Quality of Oranges, read more.
Thus, it is particularly important for finance teams to be informed of situations affecting expected payments and cash flow.
DiMuto Unifies Products, Documents and Payments in One
DiMuto connects products, documents and payments on a single platform, giving visibility across departments and functions in a company. We digitalize physical AgriFood products by tagging each fruit or vegetable with a Digital Identity Label (DID).
DiMuto’s DIDs Tagged onto Cartons of Bananas to Provide Visibility Across All Departments, read more.
DIDs act as a digital identifier for each fruit and contain product quality and traceability data and allow companies to connect the product to digital documents and payments on DiMuto Platform.
DiMuto Payment Management
DiMuto allows payment receipts to be uploaded onto the blockchain automatically, ensuring immutability. Payment status is also viewed in the same trade timeline as other trade actions, ensuring that both sales and finance understand the trade situation. The DiMuto Payment Management feature also allows companies to conduct cross-border transactions via the DiMuto Platform.
DiMuto Payment Powered by OPAL
A partner that we work with to make this possible is OPAL Payments, a Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)-licensed Major Payment Institution (MPI), which provide businesses with a less expensive and more convenient method of international payment and cross-border banking through Global Digital Business Accounts.
Through this partnership, companies on the DiMuto Platform will be able to receive payments rapidly in important markets such as the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and more, as well as access local payment networks in 21 countries without the need to set up business operations in these territories. OPAL understands that SMEs encounter challenges when it comes to transacting business on a global basis.
Beyond connecting payments in traditional currencies, the DiMuto Payment Management can allow transactions in the USD Coin (USDC), through CIRCLE, a uniform platform for businesses to collect payments and send payouts around the world using blockchain technology. Meeting the needs of high-volume trading firms, crypto exchanges, and market makers, the USD Coin (USDC) is a significant advancement in the way businesses utilize money. Digital dollars function similarly to other digital content: they travel at the speed of the internet, can be traded in the same manner that we share content, and are less expensive and more secure than current payment systems.
A Bright Future: Paving the way to trade financing access
By digitalizing physical AgriFood assets, asset tracking is now possible – the identity, movement and condition of individual products and cartons can now be easily tracked and traced with DiMuto. Coupled with Artificial Intelligence Models that can objectively assess product quality and trade health, DiMuto helps lower the risk associated with trade financing for agri-perishables, giving AgriFood SMEs opportunities to obtain much needed trade financing options.
The US$1.9 trillion global trade finance gap has deteriorated as a result of Covid-19, which is now projected to be as high as US$3.4 trillion by experts, with SMEs in emerging nations being the hardest hurt. Due to concerns such as creditworthiness, collateral requirements, short-term liquidity, and political or currency risk, SMEs have historically had difficulty obtaining institutional funding.
More efficient and trade-centric cross-border payment methods will not only create more visibility and help business manage their operations and cash flow better but also help to provide them with trade financing opportunities to help their businesses grow greater.
If you are interested to learn more about how DiMuto helps Agri-Food businesses with cross-border payment management, please reach us here or drop us an email at sales@dimuto.io.
PT Sewu Segar Nusantara (SSN), a Leading Local Fruit Distributor and Marketer in Indonesia
The Republic of Indonesia is one of the most populated nations worldwide and among the largest countries by total area. In 2020, the total population of Indonesia amounted to approximately 270.2 million. It is the largest economy in Southeast Asia.
PT Sewu Segar Nusantara (SSN) is part of Great Giant Foods, the brand entity of Gunung Sewu Group and a leading vertically integrated food player that cultivates, manufactures, delivers fresh and processed fruits, juice, meat, and dairy.
SSN has a distribution network covering: 133 Cities in 9 Major Regions, 2000 Modern Markets, 52 Sub-Distributors, 65 Wholesalers, 6000 Retailers
A Need For An Efficient Supply Chain Traceability
For some of its local products such as Pisang Mas, Melons and Oranges, SSN employs regional agronomists to work directly with smallholder farmers around different regions of Indonesia.
With the low level of technology adoption amongst these farmers, efficient and cost effective supply chain traceability was needed that could help verify provenance and extend Sunpride’s quality assurance to other local products in their portfolio, ensuring that Sunpride’s brand promise of safe quality products is kept to its consumers.
The Asian Consumer Perspective: Growing Demand for Safe & Traceable Foods
Over 40% of Asian consumers are concerned over where their food is sourced from and source-checking is a habit for some of them, indicated in a survey by the Asia Food Challenge report done by PwC, Rabobank and Temasek. It is clear that consumers across Asia are demanding stronger reassurance that food is safe, and are turning to brands they feel they can trust. Some consumers also indicate willingness to pay a “trust” premium for food bought directly from their source.
With this trend in mind, there is growing pressure on AgriFood food brands to be able to leverage technology for safe and traceable food solutions in order to buildtrust and credibility with consumers.
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.
Tracking Regional Supply Chain with DiMuto
Applicable Blockchain for Food Traceability
Immutable Records of Supply Chain Actions in a single platform
The DiMuto Platform automatically records each transaction onto the blockchain, a distributed ledger technology that uploads information in blocks and adds new information in chronological order to ensure transparency.
Trade Information recorded by the different SSN departments are secured with a blockchain hash to ensure transparency and immutability, achieving supply chain provenance in the most secure manner.
DiMuto SMART Marketing
DiMuto SMART Marketing gives marketing teams of produce brands the ability to seamlessly communicate traceability data that has been recorded by their operational team and display it to their consumers in the form of a Product Passport.
The Product Passport is able to showcase selected Product Certificates that have been uploaded on the blockchain, as well as critical supply chain stages such as Farming, Packing, Shipping and Receiving stages.
This helps produce brands to showcase product provenance and build consumer trust.
Showcasing Sunpride Brand with DiMuto SMART Marketing
Creating Strong Consumer Relationships with Direct Insights and Feedback
With DiMuto SMART Marketing, executing brand marketing campaigns, hosting promotions and lucky draws to raise brand awareness, collecting product-specific feedback from end consumers make has never been easier for PT SSN
Feedback derived from end-consumers directly provide more insights on the individual products, ensuring visibility not only between SSN departments, but also close the loop with regards to product quality at consumer level.
The positive brand engagement ratings from Point-of-Sale promotions indicate strong potential for SMART Marketing to become an important marketing tool to drive sales, better understand end-consumers and build brand loyalty.
DiMuto Helps Brands Communicate Verified Traceability to Consumers
If you are interested to learn more about how DiMuto helps Agri-Food businesses leverage on blockchain traceability to create consumer engagement, please reach us here or drop us an email at sales@dimuto.io.
[PRESS RELEASE]
PT Sewu Segar Nusantara Partners DiMuto to Execute First Farming Blockchain Initiative in Indonesia for Food Safety and Supply Chain Visibility
DiMuto, a global AgriFood Trade Solutions company, has secured a partnership with PT Sewu Segar Nusantara (SSN), a leading local fruit distributor and marketer in Indonesia, to deploy blockchain traceability across PT SSN’s fresh produce products, for food safety and supply chain visibility. The partnership will start with Sunpride’s Pisang Mas products.
SSN is part of Great Giant Foods, the corporate arm of Gunung Sewu Group and a leading vertically integrated food and agricultural products, which encompasses fresh and processed fruits,packaged foods, and beverage as well as protein and dairy products. SSN has a huge distribution network covering many cities in several major regions of Indonesia, through general trade and modern trade in collaboration with many sub-distributors, wholesalers, retailers, modern market to distribute Sunpride’s fresh fruit products.
SSN distributes and markets a variety of fresh fruits and specializes in local tropical fruits such as the Cavendish Banana, Honi Pineapple, and Crystal Guava grown on 35,600 HA of farmland by PT Great Giant Pineapple (GGP). SSN has also partnered with a large network of local farmers around 500 farmers to produce many types of products, including: Pisang Mas in East Java; Papaya in Lampung; Rock Melon and Pamelo Oranges in Central Java; Golden Melon in West Java; Medan Oranges and Barangan Bananas in North Sumarta. In addition, Sunpride also has partnerships with international fruit brands, such as Zespri, which is a well-known Kiwi marketer from New Zealand.
The partnership will allow SSN to gain visibility from farm to retail level and engage end consumers with DiMuto Product Passport to further strengthen the Sunpride brand. SSN will deploy several of DiMuto’s Product Features including Trade Management, Product Management, Inspection Management and SMART Marketing to its domestic operations, connecting its sourcing team, warehouse team, quality team, sales team, and marketing team all on one single platform.
There are additional plans to roll out DiMuto’s Farm Management feature to SSN’s network of local smallholder farmers with the aim of using digital technology to improve their livelihoods with comprehensive and accessible services – including adopting commercially viable and sustainable farming methods through education and training, access to credit and insurance, as well as downstream customer engagement by allowing farmers to record trades, track, receive and access payments.
Singapore, 25 February 2022 –
DiMuto, a global AgriFood Trade Solutions company that provides end-to-end supply chain visibility for global AgriFood Business, has partnered with PT Sewu Segar Nusantara (SSN), a leading local fruit distributor and marketer in Indonesia, to implement blockchain traceability to SSN’s fresh produce business, for food safety and supply chain visibility, starting with its Pisang Mas products.
SSN is part of Great Giant Foods, the corporate arm of Gunung Sewu Group and a leading vertically integrated food and agricultural products, which encompasses fresh and processed fruits, packaged foods, and beverage as well as protein and dairy products. SSN has a huge distribution network covering many cities in several major regions of Indonesia, through general trade and modern trade in collaboration with many sub-distributors, wholesalers, retailers, modern market to distribute Sunpride’s fresh fruit products.
SSN distributes and markets a variety of fresh fruits and specializes in local tropical fruits such as the Cavendish Banana, Honi Pineapple, and Crystal Guava. SSN’s plantations are nestled in Lampung on the southern tip of Sumatra, a key region for growing tropical fruit. One plantation owned and managed by Great Giant Pineapple in Terbanggi, Lampung Tengah, covers 35,600 HA. SSN has also partnered with a large network of local farmers around 500 farmers to produce many types of products, including: Pisang Mas in East Java; Papaya in Lampung; Rock Melon and Pamelo Oranges in Central Java; Golden Melon in West Java; Medan Oranges and Barangan Bananas in North Sumatra. In addition, Sunpride also has partnerships with international fruit brands, such as Zespri, a well-known Kiwi marketer from New Zealand.
As the market leader in Indonesia, SSN has implemented a blockchain traceability pilot project, starting with its Sunpride Pisang Mas products – the first Farming Blockchain Traceability of its kind in Indonesia via its partnership with DiMuto. SSN will deploy several of DiMuto’s Product Features including Trade Management, Production Management, Inspection Management and SMART Marketing to its domestic operations, connecting its sourcing team, warehouse team, quality team, sales team, and marketing team all on one single platform.
Every Pisang Mas fruit and carton moved through SSN’s supply chain will be labelled with DiMuto’s Digitial Identity Labels (DIDs) and be digitalized with DiMuto’s various Digital Asset Creation (DACKY) devices. For instance, at remote packing houses where SSN’s sourcing team works directly with local farmers, a mobile application version of DiMuto’s Production Management specially developed for field operations will be used.
(L: Sunpride Pisang Mas cartons labelled with DiMuto DIDs, R: SSN employees using DiMuto application to digitize Sunpride Pisang Mas)
The DiMuto Platform then connects digitized physical cartons and fruits to specific trades on its Trade Management feature – unifying product, document, and payment data for every purchase order. The ecosystem of product features on DiMuto enables SSN to see the flow of goods and the flow of money associated with the flow of goods on a single platform.
As part of this exciting Farming Blockchain Traceability Initiative, SSN is currently working with distributors and retailers such as PT Super Lion Indo, to glean insights on produce quality at the retail level – this data is successfully captured with DiMuto’s Goods Receive Application. Every transaction created on the DiMuto Platform is automatically uploaded on the blockchain, allowing for an immutable and trusted record of supply chain events.
“We are pleased to work with DiMuto to deploy blockchain traceability to our supply chain for greater transparency that we can share with customers of Sunpride,” said Cindyanto Kristian, President Director of PT Sewu Segar Nusantara. “ With blockchain traceability we are now able to efficiently and effectively trace and track each banana down to a particular famer from a particular region as it travels through our supply chain. We believe that the blockchain is the future of agri-food process. This helps us to better manage our product quality and safety for our consumers. “
For end consumers, SSN has launched Product Passports for its Sunpride Pisang Mas, enabling end consumers from the Jakarta and Surabaya regions to easily access product traceability information simply by scanning the DiMuto DID QR on the bananas. Consumers will be able to see pertinent provenance data, such as farm information and packing information for each fruit. They will also be able to learn more about the farmers, health benefits, brand information as well as provide feedback about the product directly to SSN.
(L: Sunpride Pisang Mas with DiMuto DID QRs and Product Passport, R: Sunpride Product Passport)
“We are excited to leverage this opportunity with a leading company like PT Sewu Segar Nusantara to help them achieve full supply chain visibility that benefit the various stakeholders along the supply chain, including farmers, retailers and end consumers. By working closely with the local farmers to expand our traceability capabilities to the source, we can embark on smallholder farmer digitalization and financing as part of our vision to use data as a driving force behind sustainable agriculture,” said Gary Loh, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of DiMuto.
There are also plans to implement DiMuto’s Farm Management feature to its network of smallholder farmers as part of its plan to trace its products down to the source and improving the farmers’ livelihoods through digitalization technology. Currently, only 1.7% of climate finance is going to small-scale farmers in developing countries despite their disproportionate vulnerability to climate change impacts and their contribution to 50% of the world’s food calories, according to a report by UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Climate Policy Initiative (CPI). This is exacerbated by the fact that 78% of the world’s poorest live in rural areas and rely largely on agricultural work to make a living, as reported by World Bank.
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DiMuto’s Farm Management Application
The DiMuto Farm Management application provides comprehensive services to small-scale farmers, such as adopting commercially viable and sustainable farming methods through education and training, access to credit and insurance, as well as downstream customer engagement by allowing farmers to record trades, track, receive and access payments.
DiMuto’s partnership with PT Sewu Segar Nusantara follows closely after the company secured its series A funding in September last year and is part of the company’s efforts to strengthen its presence in Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous nation.
-end-
About PT Sewu Segar Nusantara
PT Sewu Segar Nusantara was founded in 1995 as a member of the leading investment group Gunung Sewu Kencana (GSK) which has broad expertise in several fields including food, agribusiness, life insurance, consumer goods, natural resources, information technology and property. The business units of the GSK group have established an extensive distribution network across the archipelago as well as strong supplier and retailer relationships.PT Sewu Segar Nusantara focuses on local fruit distribution and marketing in collaboration with PT Great Giant Pineapple to produce several local fruits grown in the Lampung area on more than 35,600 hectares of land including Cavendish Bananas, Guava Crystal and Honi Pineapple. In addition,SSN has also partnered with a large network of local farmers around 500 farmers to produce many types of products, including: Pisang Mas in East Java; Papaya in Lampung; Rock Melon and Pamelo Oranges in Central Java; Golden Melon in West Java; Medan Oranges and Barangan Bananas in North Sumarta.
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.
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
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