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[Joint Press Release DiMuto – OPAL]

A Growing Demand For Sustainable Foods

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.

Foods Labelled as Fairtrade  (Source)

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.

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.

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.

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.

DiMuto CEO Gary Loh has been invited to join Produce Marketing Association’s Global Development Committee for 2021. The Produce Marketing Association (PMA) is a trade organization representing companies from every segment of the global fresh produce and floral supply chain. PMA aims to connect, inform and deliver industry solutions to enhance members’ prosperity and is increasingly seen as a trusted resource and thought leader for the growth of the global produce and floral industry. The Global Development Committee (GDC) is a committee aiming to foster global business connections and intelligence for current and future PMA members, and support the global growth strategy of PMA. The GDC works to identify global issues that impact the produce and floral industries and is the first line of sight to identify global opportunities for growth. It is also part of PMA’s overall mission to bring global fruit and vegetable and floral communities together in order to cultivate a healthier world. Recently, the PMA GDC has met up in Singapore to understand the challenges and opportunities faced by producers in Southeast Asia markets, as well as in Spain, a European leader in production of fruits and vegetables, so as to provide solutions to challenges in these economies. “A lack of visibility in the Messy Middle of global produce supply chains has contributed to problems with food safety and food waste. The pandemic has hit the industry hard, and there has been much conversation around how technology like blockchain can help to solve some of the problems faced by the value chain. I look forward to helping PMA and its members explore applicable solutions for challenges faced by the global fresh produce and floral industry, ” said Gary Loh, Chief Executive Officer of DiMuto. “The Covid-19 pandemic has led to widespread disruption of the fresh produce industry, driving change at a rapid pace, affecting the way the fresh produce industry works, lives, eats, moves and uses technology. Looking at how the industry can work towards becoming more resilient towards such disruptions, as well as recovery growth opportunities in the various markets will be a key focus for the incoming committee,” from Nancy Tucker, Vice President, Global Business Development of PMA. Listen to PMA’s podcast PMA Takes on Tech, and join our CEO Gary Loh, along with Vonnie Estes, VP of Technology at PMA, Seana Day, Partner at Better Food Ventures and Kim Rui, Global Head, FreshCloud Infrastructure and Analytics at AgroFresh, as they discuss how technology can help growers, packers and shippers along the value chain, especially in The First Mile and Messy Middle. Access the podcast here – https://bit.ly/2UEoRwg

• Newton Orchards is now able to connect with its end consumers directly, launching a marketing campaign that raises awareness of the Newton Orchards brand while implementing DiMuto’s SMART marketing services to communicate its from farm to table traceability story to consumers in Australia.
• DiMuto’s QR code-driven SMART marketing services are a cost-effective solution for reaching end consumers and communicating traceability brand stories from farmers and producers.

About Newton Orchards A key Western Australia orchard, Newton Orchards of Manjimup is a family owned and operated business for over 90 years and four generations. Over the years, it has grown to one of the most trusted fruit growers in Australia.

• • Has a fruit derivative beverage line of ciders and juices to reduce food waste
  • Grows a wide variety of crops, such as apples, pears, and cherries
  • Supplies fresh produce to major retail supermarkets such as Coles and Woolworths.
  • Industry: fresh produce
  • Location: Manjimup, Western Australia

Dimuto’s Results

• • DiMuto Digital Asset Creation (DAC) and the trading platform provided trade traceability that helped provide complete supply chain visibility
  • SMART marketing solutions helped engage end consumers and strengthen the Newton Orchard brand

Key Challenges

• •  Unable to engage end consumers directly and learn more about their customers
  • Unable to meet consumer demand for traceability of their fresh produce
  • Difficult to conduct cross-promotion for their fresh and beverage products
  • Challenging to differentiate the Newton Orchards apples from other existing brands in the market

For many growers and producers, it is often difficult to differentiate their products from existing products and brands in the market. This makes entries into new markets or sales channel challenging. Additionally, being at the upstream of the food supply chain, they often rely on intermediaries to deliver the product to the end consumers and as such, have no way of directly communicating with the people who consume their products. At the same time, more and more consumers are looking for traceability when it comes to fresh produce, as they want to be certain that the produce they are purchasing has been safely handled and are of good quality. While farmers have been complying with safety regulations and good processing practices, it is difficult to communicate this to the end consumers. How DiMuto Helps DiMuto’s SMART Marketing solution provides a simple solution that connects the farmers to the end consumers. As part of DiMuto’s trade solutions platform, the Sales & Marketing Retention & Awareness Tool (SMART) Marketing solution allows fresh produce growers and suppliers like Newton Orchards to conduct cost effective marketing campaigns to engage consumers. With DiMuto SMART Marketing, Newton Orchards is able to communicate to end consumers using the DiMuto QR Labels tagged on every apple. When consumers scan the QR code, they now have the power to know the journey behind a simple apple, and learn about the origin of the apples, farming practices and history of the four-generation farm. Newton Orchards SMART Marketing Lucky Draw Campaign Newton Orchards is now also able to conduct direct marketing campaigns through DiMuto SMART Marketing. It has hosted a lucky draw campaign for its Western Australia market, aiming to raise awareness about its apple juices and ciders, as well as its traceability story for the fresh Pink Lady apples. Point of Sales Marketing by Newton Orchards The marketing campaign has garnered positive feedback from consumers on the ground with its point-of sales tasting and marketing, showing that consumers respond to traceability and QR marketing. The lucky draw mechanism also allows Newton Orchards to gain an understanding of the behaviour and profile of their end consumers, and build a relationship with them. Point of sales tasting campaigns in Gilbert’s Fresh Market, Western Australia To utilize DiMuto SMART Marketing, Newton Orchards deploy DiMuto traceability solutions in order to capture their supply chain information, including DiMuto QR Labels. This allows them to communicate a verifiable traceability story to end consumers and use traceability as a tool to differentiate their brand. Newton Orchard Pink Lady Apples with DiMuto Hybrid QR Tags Adam Buckley, Logistics Manager of Newton Orchards, with Charlie Opferkuch, Owner/Manager of Gilbert’s Fresh Market Hilton owner/manager “We are excited to partner with DiMuto as part of our commitment to deliver sustainable and safe food to Australian consumers. By being able to track each apple from the farm to fork, we’re able to guarantee food integrity that customers can enjoy the apples in a way that’s closer to nature,” said Harvey Giblett, owner and manager of Newton Orchards. With DiMuto-verified products and trade, Newton Orchards is now able to leverage traceability to differentiate their brand and strengthen their farm to table brand to end consumers. If you are interested to learn more about how DiMuto helps fresh produce growers to grow their brand with traceability, please reach us here or drop us an email at sales@dimuto.io.

During the first ever digital edition of the Asia Fruit Logistica (AFL) last week, the fresh produce industry took a look at the future of Asia and Southeast Asia for the fresh produce industry.

Recovery of Asian markets

Like we predicted in our previous article, Asia’s fresh produce trade is set to bounce back and recover from the global pandemic according to the panel of experts in Asia Fruit Congress 2020. As the Fruitnet report on the event states, even a tourism-based economy like Thailand is beginning to see signs of recovery, and consumers in Asia are already veering towards e-commerce well before the coronavirus.

Demand for traceable produce

More and more consumers in Asia are expecting traceability when it comes to fresh produce, according to key findings in a Southeast Asian market report from The Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) shared during AFL. Consumers in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand are looking for traceable, high quality and premium fresh produce.

Excerpt from AusTrade sharing session during AFL2020

Opportunities for fresh produce suppliers

For produce grower-exporters looking to enter the different Asian markets, this presents a great opportunity to leverage traceability as a way to differentiate your brand of fresh produce from others in the market.

In order for traceability to make sense to producers, the value it can bring to the table has to be outweigh the cost of implementing new technologies and adapting existing work flows. Thus, “will consumers pay a premium for traceability?” is a big but necessary question that producers ask when it comes to the topic of traceability. According to a scientific study published by the Europe PMC, about 70% of consumers in China are willing to pay a premium for traceable fresh pork, and quality certification mattered most. A report by the Label Insight and Food Marketing Institute found that 75% of consumers are more likely to switch to a brand that provides more in-depth product information beyond what is provided on the physical label. 73% of consumers are also willing to pay more for such information transparency, and 56% of them trust brands that provide these information more.

By engaging end consumers at the retail level and showing them that your produce has been tracked and trace from farm to fork, producers are able to build trust with end consumers and strengthen their brand with an ability to command higher price premiums and more loyal customers.

Getting Started – First Trace, then Communicate

How to get started? Firstly, producers will need to deploy traceability systems to make sure that they can see all the important supply chain information in one place.

This means that the information on the fruit level has to be tracked and recorded throughout the supply chain, beginning from the packhouse or farm and continue as it travels towards the consumer. Information here includes fruit quality, product certificates stating origin, good manufacturing practices and more.

It is also important to ensure the integrity of the information, so that producers can communicate information that is verified – which is why many grower-exporters have been looking at blockchain for its ability to preserve and record information in a shared, immutable manner.

QR codes on fruit labels that give the ability to communicate to consumers directly

Then, there is the issue of communicating such provenance information to consumers. How can producers directly engage end consumers around the world? The answer lies, simply, in QR labels. When producers label every single fruit with a QR code, consumers can then scan the code with their mobile phones to retrieve and access such information.

DiMuto SMART Marketing Tool – Traceability with a Story

DiMuto helps produce suppliers to digitize, organize and capitalize their product and trade data. With our trade solutions, producers can track and trace their products, down to every single carton and every single product on one single platform. This product level of granularity is then combined with the relevant trade information such as shipping information and buyer receipt information on the blockchain.

As part of our trade services helping suppliers to capitalize on their traceability data, the DiMuto Sales & Marketing Retention & Awareness Tool (SMART) Marketing solution then helps brand owners and suppliers to communicate this traceability information to end consumers.

Our product page allows you to conduct cost effective marketing campaigns to engage end consumers – consumers will be able to see verified product origins, obtain information about the farm and growing practices, as well as learn new recipes and participate in exciting lucky draw promotions conducted directly by growers and brands. Consumers are also able to leave feedback on the produce quality, giving suppliers important information about the product quality and consumer experience, something that producers were previously unable to learn about due to supply chain complexity.

Consumers are able to access verified traceability story of their produce with DiMuto

We have helped suppliers like Newton Orchards, Morning Glory Farms and Pukuna Farms to engage end consumers with our solutions. Click on the links to read their customer success story.

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If you are interested to learn more about our solutions, please contact sales@dimuto.io.

[PRESS RELEASE]

Newton Orchards, Key Western Australian Apple Orchard, Deploys DiMuto Solution to Strengthen Brand with Local Farm to Fork Traceability Story

• DiMuto, a tech-based trade solutions platform, to track and trace produce for full supply chain visibility for Newton Orchards, a fruit grower in Western Australia, beginning with the Pink Lady apples

• Newton Orchards will launch a comprehensive point-of-sale marketing campaign to raise awareness for Newton Orchards’ brand while deploying DiMuto’s SMART Marketing services to communicate their farm to fork traceability story to Australian consumers

• The SMART Marketing services powered by DiMuto QR codes is a cost-effective solution to reach out to end consumers and communicate traceability brand stories of farmers and growers

• Newton Orchards is a family owned fourth-generation fruit supplying a variety of apples, pears and cherries. Newton Orchards owns one of the largest orchards in WA and supplies to major Australian supermarkets Coles and Woolworths.

 

Singapore, 17 November 2020 – DiMuto, a trade technology solutions platform that provides end-to-end supply chain visibility for global agri-food businesses, has partnered with Newton Orchards to commence its produce traceability and marketing solutions for Newton Orchards produce, beginning with the Pink Lady apples this season.

Using DiMuto’s 4T Suite Solutions, Newton Orchards will tag its apples for produce traceability and supply chain visibility. Newton Orchards will also tap on DiMuto SMART Marketing services to engage end consumers with its traceability story while also working closely with DiMuto as part of their trade network to explore export opportunities.

Newton Orchards of Manjimup is a family owned and managed fruit growing business founded in 1929. With several orchards located around the Southern Forests region growing apples, pears and cherries, Newton Orchards is one of the largest orchards in Western Australia. The fourth-generation grower supplies major supermarkets in Australia Coles and Woolworths with over 7000 tonnes of apples each year.

Newton Orchards was among the first to commercially grow Pink Lady apples, a variety that was originally developed in Manjimup.  Newtons have also backed Bravo®, the newest apple to come from the same Pink Lady breeding programme.

“We are excited to partner with DiMuto as part of our commitment to deliver sustainable and safe food to Australian consumers. By being able to track each apple from the farm to fork, we’re able to guarantee food integrity that customers can enjoy the apples in a way that’s closer to nature,” said Harvey Giblett, owner and manager of Newton Orchards.

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

 

Newton Orchard Pink Lady Apples with DiMuto Hybrid QR Labels

 Every apple will be tagged with DiMuto QR codes that can be scanned by end consumers with any mobile phones. Through the DiMuto Sales & Marketing Retention & Awareness Tool (SMART) Marketing solution, consumers will be directed to a product page that gives them easy access to traceability information and product origin. Consumers will also be able to learn more about the Newton Orchards farm, its growing practices and get to know the story of Newton Orchards farmers. Educational information like recipes and videos, as well as promotions and lucky draws can also be found. Consumers are also encouraged to leave feedback on their produce, allowing Newton Orchards to gain important information about the quality of the product and the consumer experience.

 

 

Adam Buckley, Logistics Manager of Newton Orchards, with Charlie Opferkuch, Owner/Manager of Gilbert’s Fresh Market Hilton owner/manager
Newton Orchard Pink Lady Apples with DiMuto Hybrid QR Labels in Gilbert’s Fresh Market

 

Western Australian consumers will get to learn more about Newton Orchards’ traceability story in the early November, in a collaboration between Newtons and local premium independent retailer Gilbert’s Fresh Market, Hilton. Newton Orchards will launch a point-of-sale marketing campaign to promote their brand of apples, juices, and ciders. DiMuto will assist Newton Orchards in hosting a digital lucky draw campaign, where consumers can participate in the promotion through the DiMuto QR codes and stand a chance to win an exciting array of products and grocery vouchers.

“We look forward to working closely with Newton Orchards for a fully traceable supply chain. DiMuto’s trade solutions provide growers such as Newton Orchards with full supply chain visibility and allows them to tell their traceability story to end consumers in a verified, accessible manner,” said Gary Loh, founder and Chief Executive Officer of DiMuto.

DiMuto’s deal with Newton Orchards follows closely after DiMuto’s partnership with Morning Glory Farms, a third-and-fourth generation farmer and grower in Western Australia. To date, DiMuto has tagged over 30 million fruits and tracked and traced over US$100million worth of agri-food trades. With presence in 8 countries including China, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Australia, the collaboration with Newton Orchards will strengthen DiMuto’s reach in Asia-Pacific and beyond.

 

Newton Orchards SMART Marketing Lucky Draw Campaign

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About Newton Orchards

A family owned and operated business for more than 90 years and four generations, Newton Orchards of Manjimup has grown to become one of the most trusted fruit growers in Australia. Our several picturesque orchards located around Manjimup, in Western Australia’s beautiful Southern Forests region, grow world’s best quality apples, pears and cherries for your table – including delicious new apple varieties like Kanzi and Bravo.

About DiMuto

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

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

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

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For media queries, please contact:

HuiMin LEE

Email: huimin@dimuto.io

 

Mercy Relief is now able to create gain visibility for the entire disaster relief operation – from purchasing of relief supplies to receipt of supplies by affected communities.

About Mercy Relief

Headquartered in Singapore, Mercy Relief was established in 2003 to respond to human tragedies and disasters in the Asia Pacific. Today, we are Singapore’s leading independent disaster relief agency with dedicated leadership, capacity building expertise and an affiliate network operating across the entire disaster management cycle.

Mercy Relief provides emergency aid within 72 hours of an international appeal in the aftermath of a disaster. The objective of our longer-term sustainable development programmes is to uplift and empower communities in five key areas: water and sanitation, shelter, sustainable livelihoods, healthcare, and education. For the past 17 years, Mercy Relief has responded to more than 84 human tragedies with more than $44.6 million in relief across 26 countries. We have implemented more than 65 post disaster projects and impacted over 2.5 million lives.

• Location: Singapore
• Industry: Humanitarian aid
• Present in over 26 countries
• Provides emergency aid within 72 hours of disasters, delivering emergency aid to affected communities

 

DiMuto Results

• DiMuto Digital Asset Creation (DAC) helped to create digital identities for humanitarian aid items for remote traceability purposes
• DiMuto blockchain-powered traceability platform provided line-of-sight on operations of humanitarian response in Indonesia and Bangladesh

Key Challenges: Inability to Travel During COVID-19 Made Operations Oversight and Accountability Challenging

Before covid-19, as part of their international response effort, Mercy Relief used to deploy a member from their programmes team as part of their disaster response team to disaster zones. Having a personnel member to oversee the humanitarian aid response, it allowed Mercy Relief to ensure that the ground operations was flowing smoothly and work closely with local partners to provide help needed.

However, the Covid-19 pandemic meant that travelling down to disaster zones was no longer an option. This made oversight of the NGO’s humanitarian response in the different countries challenging.

“Travel disruptions brought on by COVID-19 have made it difficult for our team to be physically present at disaster zones. Partnering with DiMuto helps us maintain transparency and accountability in all our disaster response efforts and assures timely relief to communities most in need,” said Carol Lee, Executive Director of Mercy Relief.

How DiMuto Helps 

All aid items will be tracked using DiMuto’s traceability solutions. With its full-fledged traceability solution, DiMuto is able to create visibility for the entire disaster relief operation – from purchasing of relief supplies to receipt of supplies by affected communities.

Aid items will be digitalized using DiMuto QR labels and tracked on the DiMuto Platform. Relevant shipping and transaction information will be associated with the relevant aid item. This means that Mercy Relief will be able to see the exact resources and documentation information for every single relief effort, down to individual aid items. To ascertain that funds provided to local partners in disaster areas are being used to help affected families and communities, the receipt of aid by affected communities will also be tracked via the DiMuto Receiver App. All records made on the blockchain-powered DiMuto Platform will be immutable and verified, safeguarding accountability and transparency for the entire disaster relief effort.

Mercy Relief provided Covid-19 swab booths, that were tracked and traced by DiMuto

 

For instance, as part of their Covid-19 Relief Aid & Assistance programme, Mercy Relief supplied 10 hospitals in South Sulawesi, Indonesia with covid-19 swab booths. With DiMuto, they were able to create a unique digital identity for each of the swab booth, and track their distribution on our blockchain-powered platform.

 

The locally made swab booths allow people with coronavirus symptoms to get tested while bolstering the safety of the medical team and their other patients, helping the hospitals to manage covid-19 cases more effectively.

Mercy Relief team scanning QR codes for traceability of their ground operations on DiMuto platform

Covid-19 aid relief items individually tracked on the DiMuto traceability platform

DiMuto provided Mercy Relief operations team the ability to track individual aid items and maintain accountability in their covid-19 response. By deploying DiMuto blockchain traceability, Mercy Relief can continue to ensure receipt by intended beneficiaries, creating transparency and building trust on-the-ground despite ongoing travel restrictions.

Khairul Massuan, Senior Manager, International Programme of Mercy Relief, commented, “DiMuto’s blockchain technology is not only user friendly but it is simple to use. It ensures real time monitoring of the procurement to the distribution of our relief aid items through the scanning of QR code. It helps us maintain traceability & accountability more efficiently. Thank you DiMuto for the partnership.”

With DiMuto, Mercy Relief is now able to efficiently maintain traceability & accountability for their international humanitarian response throughout the region, even with travel restrictions brought about by the coronavirus.

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If you are interested to learn more about how DiMuto can help create visibility and traceability for your business, please reach us here or drop us an email at sales@dimuto.io.  

 

 

 

 

 

[PRESS RELEASE]

Mercy Relief uses Blockchain Traceability Solution by DiMuto for Its Humanitarian Crisis Response Amidst COVID-19

• Mercy Relief, a Singapore-based disaster relief agency, will be using the Blockchain Traceability Solution from DiMuto, a trade technology solutions company, to gain visibility and traceability for humanitarian crises response amidst COVID-19

• Active across 26 countries, Mercy Relief is Singapore’s only homegrown independent non-governmental humanitarian charity. Since 2003, Mercy Relief has responded to more than 84 human tragedies with more than $44.6 million in relief and implemented over 65 post disaster projects and impacted an aggregate of over 2.5 million lives

• Travel restrictions and lockdowns due to the ongoing pandemic have created a lack of visibility for international crisis responses, making humanitarian accountability challenging

• DiMuto traceability solutions will help Mercy Relief track humanitarian relief aid items to ensure receipt by intended beneficiaries, creating transparency and building trust with on-the-ground local partners as well as donors

• The collaboration is part of DiMuto’s CSR efforts and commitment in continuing to create positive impact during the COVID-19 pandemic. The partnership demonstrates value of DiMuto solutions and ability to work across industries where there is disconnected visibility of supply chains and operations

Singapore, 26^th October 2020 – Mercy Relief, Singapore’s leading independent disaster relief agency, will be using the Blockchain Traceability Solution from DiMuto, a trade technology solutions company providing end-to-end supply chain visibility platform for agri-food businesses, to track and trace their international relief work. Mercy Relief is Singapore’s only homegrown independent non-governmental humanitarian charity. Established in 2003, the charity organization responds to immediate disasters in the Asian region, as well as organizing longer-term developmental projects that focus on water & sanitation, shelter, sustainable livelihoods, healthcare and education. Over the past decade, Mercy Relief has executed 84 separate immediate relief operations with more than $44.6 million in relief, as well as implemented 65 post disaster projects in over 26 countries, impacting over 2.5 million lives. Mercy Relief responds within 72 hours of a disaster, delivering emergency aid to affected communities. The agency strives to work with local partners with proper financial accountability and ensure no duplication with the work done by other NGOs so that affected individuals and communities fully benefit. As part of the partnership with DiMuto, all aid items will be tracked using DiMuto’s traceability solutions.  With its full-fledged traceability solution, DiMuto is able to create visibility for the entire disaster relief operation – from purchasing of relief supplies to receipt of supplies by affected communities. “Travel disruptions brought on by COVID-19 have made it difficult for our team to be physically present at disaster zones. Partnering with DiMuto helps us maintain transparency and accountability in all our disaster response efforts and assures timely relief to communities most in need,” said Carol Lee, Executive Director of Mercy Relief. Aid items will be digitalized using DiMuto QR labels and tracked on the DiMuto Platform. Relevant shipping and transaction information will be associated with the relevant aid item. This means that Mercy Relief will be able to see the exact resources and documentation information for every single relief effort, down to individual aid items. To ascertain that funds provided to local partners in disaster areas are being used to help affected families and communities, the receipt of aid by affected communities will also be tracked via the DiMuto Receiver App. All records made on the blockchain-powered DiMuto Platform will be immutable and verified, safeguarding accountability and transparency for the entire disaster relief effort. “We are glad to join forces with another Singapore-based organization like Mercy Relief and support their international humanitarian efforts. Similar to the agri-food industry, internationally coordinated humanitarian projects often face challenges from a lack of visibility and this has been exacerbated by the pandemic. This is where trust and transparency can be established using DiMuto Trade Solutions,” said Gary Loh, founder and Chief Executive Officer of DiMuto. Recognising the potential for DiMuto’s solution to support Mercy Relief’s humanitarian efforts, Enterprise Singapore facilitated an introduction between the two Singapore organisations in August 2020. According to Mr. Lee Yee Fung, Director, ICM & Digitalization, Enterprise Singapore, “Through partnerships, Singapore companies can harness the strengths and capabilities of each other to solve complex challenges and improve business outcomes.  Companies can also provide innovative offerings to customers and broaden their relevance across sectors. We look forward to supporting more strategic partnerships between local enterprises that support their respective business goals.” Enterprise Singapore has been supporting DiMuto in their internationalisation efforts and development of technical capabilities. The partnership with Mercy Relief will be the first footprint of the trade solutions company in international humanitarian aid. To date, DiMuto has digitized over 30 million fruits and tracked and traced over US$100million worth of agri-food trades. With presence in eight countries including China, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Australia, the collaboration with Mercy Relief will expand use cases for the company’s trade solutions platform.   – end-   About Mercy Relief Headquartered in Singapore, Mercy Relief was established in 2003 to respond to human tragedies and disasters in the Asia Pacific. Today, we are Singapore’s leading independent disaster relief agency with dedicated leadership, capacity building expertise and an affiliate network operating across the entire disaster management cycle. Mercy Relief provides emergency aid within 72 hours of an international appeal in the aftermath of a disaster. The objective of our longer-term sustainable development programmes is to uplift and empower communities in five key areas: water and sanitation, shelter, sustainable livelihoods, healthcare, and education. For the past 17 years, Mercy Relief has responded to more than 84 human tragedies with more than $44.6 million in relief across 26 countries. We have implemented more than 65 post disaster projects and impacted over 2.5 million lives. For more information about Mercy Relief, please visit https://www.mercyrelief.org   About DiMuto DiMuto is in the business of creating trust. We provide global supply chains with a trade technology platform built on 4Ts: Tracking, Tracing, Transparency and Trust – thus demystifying global trade and enabling collaborative commerce. The DiMuto 4T Suite Solution, a 4-part trade technology solution combining blockchain, AI and IoT, creates end-to-end trade visibility and forms building blocks for further value creation in trade financing, product marketing and data analytics. Since 2018, DiMuto has successfully tracked and traced over millions of pieces in produce and millions in dollars of trade value on our platform. We work with a global portfolio of clients in over eight 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.   ## For media queries, please contact: Ain Hamzah Mercy Relief E: ain.hamzah@mercyrelief.org HuiMin Lee DiMuto E: huimin@dimuto.io