Using SCiO sensors that provide instant moisture results, Olam Cocoa will be able to capture advanced farm-gate data that provides real-time, accurate quality assessment. This information is traditionally available via intermediaries, but the scanners mean Olam can analyze the full moisture range of cocoa beans non-invasively in less than a minute.
Tracking and collecting scans across thousands of smallholder farms provides valuable insight into grassroots-level cocoa processing while making sourcing quality cocoa more efficient and providing supplier traceability. It will also help Olam track trends over time and across different geographies.
Vijay K. Karunakaran, Olam’s Indonesia business head, said SCiO, a Near-Infrared or NIR-based, cloud-connected, and smartphone-operated pocket spectrometer, is a key initiative that makes it possible for the company to capture advanced data at farm-gate. “This helps in timely, correct and on the spot quality assessment—therefore allowing Olam Cocoa to make deeper inroads in its cocoa value chain while giving the smallholder farmers a fair price through accurate quality assessment,” said Karunakaran.
SCiO scanning cocoa beans
The SCiO sensors provide ten to a thousand times more data points and make science and AI more readily accessible to farmers and agronomists, which benefits the entire food and agriculture supply chain, challenged to feed more with fewer resources.
Olam International’s food and agri-business include farming, processing, and distribution. Its value chain spans 60 countries, and the company is one of the world’s leading suppliers of sustainable cocoa, working towards 100% traceable cocoa volumes by 2020 from its direct origination supply chain, a network that includes 650,000 cocoa farmers throughout Africa, Asia, and South America.
Dror Sharon, CEO and Co-Founder of Consumer Physics, the makers of the SCiO scanner, said, “The Fourth Industrial Revolution is impacting every single enterprise and SCiO enables our customers to expedite their use of advanced digital tools.”
Source: Consumer Physics
