April 18, 2021

EMURGO Client ALKO is the First Enterprise to Utilize Blockchain for Coffee Traceability in Southeast Asia

Coming off the recent one year anniversary of the launch of EMURGO Trace – an enterprise solution leveraging blockchain technology to solve supply chain inefficiencies – EMURGO client, Alko Sumatra Kopi (ALKO), has announced its plans to further leverage EMURGO Trace to export 100 tonnes of blockchain-traced coffee to China and expand its business distribution.

ALKO – an Indonesia-based cooperative and coffee processor – is the first enterprise to use blockchain technology to trace coffee beans in Southeast Asia and one of the first global clients to integrate EMURGO Trace into its supply chain.

It will now export its high quality, Arabica coffee beans to China in addition to its current distribution to the US, Japan, India, Malaysia, and France.

Emerging Coffee Market in China

This announcement reflects increasing coffee consumption in China and growing demand worldwide for coffee especially in emerging markets.

In the case of China’s local coffee market, while per capita consumption has remained relatively low compared to other markets, it has grown at an average rate of 16% over the past decade according to the International Coffee Organization.

As the purchasing power of the local economy continues to grow at a fast pace, citizens are increasingly turning towards varied types of coffee consumption with many franchise and local coffee boutique shops opening for business in the mainland.

ALKO, as a processor of high quality, specialty-grade Arabica coffee beans grown in the Kerinci region, intends to tap into the large potential of the Chinese coffee market with its quickly rising demand for coffee consumption and increasing purchasing power.

It targets the growing segment of coffee consumers worldwide looking for high quality, specialty coffee, creating a natural demand for verified and authentic coffee which solutions using blockchain technology such as EMURGO Trace can provide at a low cost and in real-time.

Using EMURGO Trace to Track Coffee Beans from Farm to Cup

Indonesia is one of the world’s leading coffee producers and is ranked 4th globally in terms of coffee production.

According to a World Bank report, around 10 million people in Indonesia are economically involved in the coffee industry as a stakeholder in the supply chain.

However, 96% of the local coffee produced is by small farmers lacking technological resources and receiving weak government support to properly benefit from this boom.

Much of the Indonesian coffee production market is made up of a very fragmented network of small farmers, roasters, processors, and logistics companies that still use inefficient paper-based methods of product tracking and data management.

EMURGO Trace, as a digital tailored solution, offers enterprises such as ALKO a simple way to efficiently track products securely, transparently, and in real-time.

This provides each stakeholder from farm to the end consumer with enhanced trust through essential product information that has been verified in each part of the supply chain.

Information such as sourcing origin, processing dates, shipment information, and other relevant data is input in real-time into EMURGO Trace’s mobile application and stored into the blockchain, giving each stakeholder transparent access at any given time into the journey of the product.

Enterprises benefit from reduced data management costs, increased consumer confidence in their brands, and transparency into the actions of other stakeholders in their supply chain, which in turn allows for increased business margins.

Contact EMURGO to Integrate EMURGO Trace Tailored to Your Needs

As consumers around the world in developed and emerging markets place more emphasis on higher quality and trusted sources of their products, blockchain technology continues to become an essential solution for companies developing such products.

EMURGO, a global emerging technologies company that provides custom-built solutions to solve some of the most complex problems of organizations and a founding entity of the globally recognized Cardano protocol, can offer an end-to-end solution customized to meet the unique product traceability needs of enterprises.

If your enterprise or project would like to integrate a tailored product traceability solution to increase business margins and add value to your consumers, please feel free to contact us at info@dev.emurgo.io for more information.

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