NEW YORK, Jan. 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- CHO, one of
the largest producers of olive oil in the southern Mediterranean,
and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announce that CHO is using IBM
Blockchain to provide traceability for its Terra Delyssa extra
virgin olive oil across eight quality assurance checkpoints,
including the orchard where the olives were grown, the mill where
olives were crushed, and the facilities where the oil was filtered,
bottled, distributed, and more.
Starting with its most recent harvest now being bottled, customers
of Terra Delyssa retailers around the world will be able to scan a
QR-code on each label, allowing them to view a provenance record.
By detailing each step of the product's journey, consumers can gain
peace of mind about the origins of their olive oil and richer
insight into its journey and quality checkpoints, and even view
images of the fields where the olives were grown. CHO is the latest
major food provider to join IBM Food Trust – a
permissioned blockchain network that provides a more efficient way
of working across the food supply chain for growers, processors,
shippers, retailers, regulators and consumers.
Terra Delyssa, a leading brand known for its transparency and
unique smooth flavor profile, is grown in CHO's pesticide-free
orchards with 320 days of sun, is first cold pressed under the
highest standards for quality and is made entirely from a single
source. The company has already begun using Food Trust to manage
and record traceability efforts for its extra virgin line, the
highest grade of olive oil as classified by the International Olive
Oil Council and the USDA.
Media coverage of olive oil mislabeling and illicit counterfeit
olive oil operations, plus the general confusion about how olive
oils are blended, are driving consumer distrust. And even for
products where there is less confusion, today's consumers still say
they demand authenticity and transparency: A recent IBM
Institute for Business Value study found 73 percent
of consumers will pay a premium for full transparency into the
products they buy. Using blockchain technology creates a
meticulous, verifiable record of where each bottle of olive oil was
produced and the methods used. This information can then be shared
in near real time with distributers, retailers, and other
permissioned members of the company's supply chain.
"Our families have been olive farmers and olive oil millers for
generations. We created Terra Delyssa with a unique, smooth
flavor profile to be the ambassador of Tunisian olive oil," said
Wajih Rekik, CEO of CHO America.
"With Food Trust, we believe we are among the first olive oil
producers to use blockchain to provide our consumers a window into
each step that goes into making our olive oil so exceptional."
Blockchain technology enables greater trust across the supply chain
by creating a permanent, digitized chain of transactions that
cannot be altered. Olive farmers, millers, distributors and
retailers alike can all interact more efficiently using near
real-time access to comprehensive product data. Consumers can be
provided access to detailed information traced to the blockchain
about the origins of the products they consume.
"This is yet another example of Food Trust's commitment to
strengthening the food system from farm to table," said Raj
Rao, General Manager, IBM Food Trust. "In terms
of food provenance, olive oil presents a difficult challenge, as
the product must work its way from an olive grove to an
international base of retailers while retaining its purity and
freshness. Thanks to Food Trust, information about the origin and
purity of the product can be made available in near real time for
both consumers and CHO's distribution partners."
For distributors and retailers, a separate enterprise application
using blockchain will enable them to access in-depth information
about each processing and control stage of production, including
that it was first press, extra virgin, organic, all using analysis
from CHO's IOC accredited laboratory and 3rd party auditors.
Since harvest began in November, data about Terra Delyssa lots is
already being uploaded to the distributed ledger, and Terra
Delyssa's fully traceable extra virgin olive oil is currently being
bottled and expected to reach store shelves at major retailers in
the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Denmark and Japan by March. You can read more about Terra
Delyssa here www.terradelyssa.com
About IBM Blockchain
IBM is recognized as the leading enterprise blockchain
provider. The company's research, technical and business experts
have broken barriers in transaction processing speeds, developed
the most advanced cryptography to secure transactions, and are
contributing millions of lines of open source code to advance
blockchain for businesses. IBM is the leader in open-source
blockchain solutions built for the enterprise. Since 2016, IBM has
worked with hundreds of clients across financial services, supply
chain, government, retail, digital rights management and healthcare
to implement blockchain applications, and operates a number of
networks running live and in production. The cloud-based IBM
Blockchain Platform delivers the end-to-end capabilities that
clients need to quickly activate and successfully develop, operate,
govern and secure their own business networks. IBM is an early
member of Hyperledger, an open source collaborative effort created
to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies. For more
information about IBM Blockchain,
visit https://www.ibm.com/blockchain/ or follow us on
Twitter at @ibmblockchain.
About CHO
CHO is a renowned olive-growing producer which has built its
success on values and a culture which combines modernity and
respect for agricultural traditions. Thanks to its integrated
structure (horizontal integration and vertical integration), CHO
has a strong presence in the olive oil sector in Tunisia and worldwide. Terra Delyssa is
a brand of CHO Company, where it is sold all over the world,
including the United States,
Canada, France, Germany and Russia. Origin 846 and Bulk by CHO are
additional brands in the CHO portfolio. The CHO Group invests in
quality. We believe that by pioneering quality control in our
industry, we elevate our quality, protect our farmers' hard-work
and build a better future for our children.
CONTACT: Christina Trejo,
Christina.Trejo@ibm.com
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SOURCE IBM