Olam Cocoa selects SCiO devices to further cocoa bean procurement

Olam International's Cocoa division, Olam Cocoa, is accelerating its digital initiatives by supplying its field and purchase managers with SCiO devices at cocoa collection points from Consumer Physics.

SCiO, which is a novel hand-held, connected smart sensor, will enable Olam Cocoa traders to review a full moisture range in cocoa beans, on location, in under a minute.

Vijay K. Karunakaran, Head of the Olam Cocoa Indonesia business said: “Olam Cocoa has been working with smallholder farmers across the value chains it operates in, for years. Due to the scale of transactions and complexity of field analysis of the produce, traditional intermediaries have had a role to play. But with technological developments, including IoT, Olam Cocoa is now leveraging its digital platform to directly reach the first mile of the cocoa supply chain.”

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“SCiO, a NIR based pocket spectrometer is one such key initiative enabling Olam Cocoa's ambitions of capturing 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.”

The instant moisture results will enable Olam Cocoa to disintermediate and source directly from smallholder cocoa farmers based on the quality they produce and will enable efficiency, quality and traceability to be raised at supplier farms.

Dror Sharon, CEO and Co-Founder of Consumer Physics, the makers of SCiO, added: “We are proud to have been chosen by Olam International and it is rewarding to see SCiO used by frontline smallholder cocoa farmers. This is an exciting example of fulfilling our vision for the global democratization of digital material sensing.”