"Placing temperature loggers in our containers is not revolutionary. The fact that Escavox unlocks the data collected by them - that is pretty revolutionary," remarks Awie de Jager, CEO of Delecta Fruit. In the four months his company has been tracking its supply chain data using Escavox analytics, they've already identified areas of improvement, he says.
"You've already spent the money to put this clever logger into your shipment and you're just letting this data float off into the ether when you're only using it if there's a problem," maintains Luke Wood, chief executive of Escavox, an Australian company that has been gaining traction among some of the big names in South African fruit exports. "This stuff is gold, just learn how to dig into it. But that's really hard, every journey is unique. We're analysing the data in a way that, frankly, no-one else does."
Escavox's Luke Wood: "If I can show that I manage my supply chain consistently, I'm a lower risk purchase when you buy from me: risk-based pricing."
There are two things worth thinking about, he elaborates: the traditional logistics side which physically tracks where the product is and the other side of this coin, which concerns itself with the shipping temperature and the relationship between temperature and quality or "glorified insurance", Wood calls it. "Those two problems are typically solved independently of each other. What we really do is to merge those data sets. We look at the physical supply chain through a quality lens and the way we process the information, means we can change the conversation."
He says that when receivers ask about temperature, what they really want to know is: does it impact me? Is it performing within the quality specifications? Escavox's answer is that current supply chains are clearly not.
"We've still got incredible levels of waste at the tail-end of the chain, whether in-store or in the home. We're not predicting inventory very well and we can see limited quality checks are not sufficient enough to prevent food waste."
Looking at the physical supply chain through a quality lens (photos: Escavox)
Turning underutilised data into a leveraging tool for exporters
Wood remarks that producers and exporters need a tool to defend themselves and simultaneously provide a guarantee of their quality. The only ones in the supply chain who are directly rewarded for quality is the producer and exporter and the retailer. The data that Escavox gleans from currently underutilised data allows the exporting side to have a serious conversation with their client.
Companies do not have the wherewithal or labour to go through the temperature logs of thousands of containers, and when they do, the data is primarily used to fight rejections and claims, which is in actual fact a miniscule aspect of the supply chain. He adds: "And not getting rejected is not a sign of quality. It's just a sign that you weren't rejected."
"That's the shift in thinking," he continues. "We're turning data into an ROI [return on investment] asset. If I can show that I manage my supply chain consistently, I'm a lower risk purchase when you buy from me: risk-based pricing. Therefore, I can derisk your purchase from me, and that can turn into dollars and cents. Risk is there to be managed. If I understand what's happened to my product in terms of quality, I can phone my customer and say look, the container sat longer in port than expected, therefore move this container before the others. Like any commercial conversation I've pre-empted the problem, and I've changed the conversation."
"Escavox offers a very attractive value proposition," observes Delecta Fruit's Awie de Jager. "A consumer has certain expectations of a product while a producer has the ability to load a certain product but inbetween there's a cold chain to be managed. The gap between what was packed and what was received is, to a large degree, very different over a wide spectrum of products. When I heard Luke speaking at Asia Fruit Logistica, that sentence really stood out for me, and therein lies the opportunity for solutions."
Escavox wants to reduce that gap to reduce food waste. Any improvement to the supply chain, De Jager points out, will necessarily result in an extended shelf life and therefore reduced food losses. Wood notes that Escavox is beta testing an advanced analysis to predict pulp temperatures in the chain.
Also, he adds, the data aids an exporter in learning which products can better handle cold steri protocols. "At Delecta we have many markets for which we have to steri product. Many of the protocols require prolonged cold treatment, but if you've reached your goal before, say, 21 days, you ought not to continue placing your product under cold stress and perhaps you can in this way extend the shelf life in future."
The regulatory environment of global trade rests heavily upon the fruit industry, he says, and Escavox will be a navigational tool within it.
For more information:
Matthew Mules
Escavox
Tel: +27 64 632 0296
Email: [email protected]
https://www.escavox.com/