DiMuto, a trade technology service that provides end-to-end supply chain visibility for global businesses, has closed a deal with Thailand’s largest fresh durian exporter and frozen durian producer – Queen Frozen Fruit (Queen) – for the upcoming durian season.
According to a news release, DiMuto will tag, track and trace around 4m fresh durians from Thailand to China, Japan and other parts of Asia.
The Singapore-based startup is the first in the world to transform fresh durians into traceable digital assets. Under the deal, DiMuto is expected to turn the 4m durians into traceable digital assets from now to December 2019, enabling each durian to be uniquely tagged, photographed, tracked at each stage of the supply chain.
DiMuto’s track and trace blockchain platform seamlessly integrates with supply chain workflows and existing systems to create traceability and accountability for each of the durians, from farms, factories, cold chain to distribution channels and end consumers.
Data is encrypted and loaded onto the distributed digital ledger, enabling Queen and its trade partners to obtain end-to-end, 24/7 visibility to the entire supply chain, from creating trade contracts, monitoring packing status, product receipt confirmation to customer feedback.
This in turn allows Queen to share verified documents and data with its partners on a single platform, reducing trade disputes over quality and strengthening trust with its customers and trade partners.
According to DiMuto, the increased transparency solves one of the biggest issues faced by the fresh fruits industry: access to traditional bank financing.
“Securing funding from banks has always been a challenge in the fresh fruits industry as risk managers cannot see what is happening behind the scenes,' said DiMuto’s founder and chairman Gary Loh. 'Due to the disconnected visibility in the supply chain, the industry is paying a heavy cost for trade disputes, food safety breaches and wastage.
'DiMuto’s overarching goal is to address these challenges by creating trust, demystifying global trade and fuelling the growth of this industry,' he continued. 'In the process, we aim to level the playing field for the underbanked SMEs in the industry by opening up new trade finance avenues for them.”
With the full supply chain visibility provided by the track and trace blockchain solution, DiMuto’s trade finance partner, Havenport Investments (Havenport), can conduct more accurate credit assessment and extend trade financing to more quality businesses.
Havenport has started providing trade financing to Queen, which has 14 fresh durian packhouses across the country, and four factories to produce Thai tropical fruits for domestic sales and exports to over 30 countries.
In 2018, Queen was responsible for over 10m durians exported to international markets and its total company revenue amounted to US$271m.
“Our collaboration with Queen establishes us as a key player in the global fresh fruits industry, and our partnership with Havenport is testament to the assurance we can provide to empower fund managers to venture into industries previously considered to be too much of a risk,” added Loh.
The partnership between Havenport and DiMuto could potentially extend beyond the fresh fruits industry, as Havenport plans to expand its trade financing portfolio by leveraging on the DiMuto’s technology where possible.
