How digital transformation helps create more profitable and sustainable agrifood businesses
“In today’s world of rapidly advancing technology, the agrifood industry is facing a critical decision point. As the global population grows, the already complex and multifaceted agrifood supply chain is under increasing pressure. To ensure efficiency, transparency, and sustainability in this vital chain, digital transformation is no longer a luxury – it’s a necessity. Digitalization and automation have become increasingly ubiquitous as a way to increase productivity and improve efficient resource use, consistent with the need for a more sustainable food system.
Thus, digital transformation is crucial for the agrifood supply chain, as it enables visibility in the supply chain, forming the bedrock for the role of AI and data analytics to create a more sustainable future for food.
The need for digital transformation in the agrifood supply chain
The agrifood supply chain is a complex network that involves numerous stakeholders – from farmers and producers to distributors, retailers, and consumers. Traditionally, this chain has been managed using analog methods that are labor-intensive, time-consuming, and often fraught with inefficiencies. The lack of real-time information sharing and visibility across the entire supply chain results in problems such as overproduction, underutilized resources, food waste, and limited traceability. This is where digital transformation steps in.
From analog to digital: breaking down data silos with digitization
One of the primary challenges faced by the agrifood supply chain is the existence of data silos. Information is often trapped within individual stages of the chain, preventing seamless communication and collaboration.
What makes these data silos even more challenging to resolve is that much of this data exists in pen-and-paper format, even for large companies managing millions of dollars and thousands of products in their daily operations.
Additionally, companies often invest in additional manpower, time and resources to do additional sorting pre and post-shipment, just to reduce the possibility of facing rejections and quality issues further down the supply chain.
Thus, to have supply chain visibility, we must first digitize the analog to the digital, transforming operational processes in such a way that recording such data in the digital world is applicable, scalable and operational.
DiMuto’s QR code labels quickly creates a digital twin of each product and carton, allowing production and supply chain captured via our ecosystem of mobile app and web platform to be efficiently tagged to the digital twin of said product and carton.”
*This article is excerpted from freshplaza.com website, published August 24, 2023