March 4, 2020

El Ordeño joins blockchain-based IBM pilot programme

El Ordeño has joined IBM Food Trust, a global ecosystem for the food industry, to provide responsibility and transparency to its customers and reduce food waste.

The company aims to support the dairy industry in Ecuador, a country which produces five million litres of milk annually.

El Ordeño will use the blockchain-based technology to monitor its TRU milk products, which have been relaunched with new packaging featuring a QR code. By scanning the label with a mobile device, consumers can now access information about the path that their TRU milk has travelled, including information about the producer as well as the quality centres, cold chains and distribution centres the milk travelled through, all the way to the table.

"We are constantly transforming the way we do business to ensure the best possible quality for all our products," said Guilherme Franklin, El Ordeño COO. "Blockchain technology provides the transparency we need to show that our products comply with quality processes and steps before they reach Ecuadorians' table.

Global milk production is expected to reach 981 million tons by 2028, according to UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO); and production will increase 1.7% annually."

The solution will also allow supply chain partners to securely and selectively connect ecosystem data with transparency. Most importantly, final consumers will have information to trace the origin and condition of the milk products they buy and eat, and producers will minimise waste and fraud.

"Consumers are increasingly aware of how important it is to know the origin and traceability of the products they consume," says Martín Hagelstrom, IBM Blockchain Leader for IBM Latin America. "IBM Food Trust provides El Ordeño with a single, immutable and transparent source of information about how their milk products are distributed throughout the country. Most importantly, Food Trust allows consumers to access this information in real time when they buy the products and to make purchase decisions based on the data."

El Ordeño has a plan to scale the solution not only to its milk portfolio, but to all its dairy products.