Group Announcement – New BanQu & First Mile Solutions

As we all know, complete, accurate, reliable and consistent First Mile data available on a near real time basis is often difficult to obtain today, due to the fragmented global supply chains, solutions, processes and systems that ECOM operates throughout.

Improving ECOM’s competitive abilities, our on-the ground technology landscape and integration throughout our entire origin value chain will:

• - facilitate better business decision support,
• - track and inform ESG initiatives,
• - provide more customer services and
• - enable ECOM to have a positive impact on our farmers, communities and the planet.

With this in mind, ECOM has been assessing a variety of leading technology solutions that can offer us a future-proofed, proven platform to capture our origin supply chains, farmer and ESG data, support direct and indirect chain of custody data and provide near real-time reporting and auditable records. After review, we are very pleased to share that ECOM has selected BanQu as this future-proof First Mile technology. Its blockchain base, when integrated with our future global data lake and our new iRely CTRM, will provide end-to-end auditable and verifiable traceability and the ability to support customer requests more directly in future.

BanQu uses non-crypto blockchain and patented technology to provide a one-stop location for capturing supply chain and ESG data to support sustainable and compliant sourcing, with real time insight and reporting that is backed up by auditable technology. It was created for remote farms, and therefore is able to work on simple farmer phones with SIM cards, compared to some other similar technologies relying heavily on WiFi access and advanced tablets.

While this technology’s immediate priority focus may be our upcoming EU Deforestation Regulation compliance and readiness, we have negotiated a scope that covers extensive optionality for the One ECOM future within the same platform with: unlimited crops and users, full farmer 360 data, dynamic surveys, farmer messaging, polygons and geo-location capture, agronomy and crop 360 data, full chain of custody capture, EUDR and future compliance tracking, farmer ID standardization, system integrations, and local and global reports and training.

To see and hear a bit more about BanQu, check out the following short video links:

What is BanQu?

BanQu - Sneak Peek

BanQu - Truly Sustainable Sourcing

The BanQu Story

There is also additional information and a list of some the companies already using this technology on the following BanQu website:

BanQu Website

Consolidated and reliable data will also be key for ECOM’s continued success throughout the changing regulatory landscape and increased pressure from clients and 3rd parties assessing our supply chains, whether that be the EU Deforestation Regulation, the future EU Digital Product Passport regulations or their equivalent expanding global legislation requirements for our industry and our farmers and customers.

The rollout of BanQu across our origins and commodities will help improve the fragmentation of ECOM’s current data landscape, facilitate consistency and immediacy of data, and enable ECOM to deliver increased value to our customers and our supply chain, with a shared focus on data privacy and data rights.

This choice is a part of ECOM's effort to support our people and business with more efficient, modern tools, and help farmers improve their livelihoods, while adding value for our customers through full traceability and transparency and address the key challenges in our supply chain.

Implementation of this new technology will start early 2024 with a boots-on-the-ground approach in one coffee and one cocoa country, prior to global roll-out. While coffee and cocoa may be the initial focus due to EU Deforestation Regulations coming into force by 30th December 2024, this is a One ECOM solution for all our global businesses, including cotton and ENS. Further updates will be provided as we progress on this exciting journey.

ECOM shall continue to market these expanding modernized capabilities and service offerings to farmers and customers under its respected SMS Integrity brand. BanQu simply brings us the enhanced technological ability behind it, similar to the “Intel Inside” often used in computers.

We welcome any questions or interest and feel free to send those to your commodity head.

Please note that this is an internal ECOM message at this time, and we are in the process of drafting a public communication to be shared externally in early January.

Thank You & Happy New Year,

ECOM Executive Committee