Sicily Rolls Out Blockchain Platform to Track & Protect Sicilian Blood Oranges

Blockchain-powered Agriculture 4.0 is advancing in Italy and now the Sicilian Red Orange PGI is protected against counterfeiting thanks to a 'hi-tech stamp' and a platform centered on distributed ledger tech (DLT) that can thus ensure the authenticity and integrity of the fruit in Italy and abroad.

The "technological stamp" tells the source and characteristics of the item made for consumption, facilitates customs procedures and sees the state and temperature of the oranges during transport to guarantee a result of excellence everywhere.

The initiative dubbed Rouge-Red Orange Upgrading Green Economy (ROUGE), is of the Consortium for the Protection of the Blood Orange of Sicily IGP and from the 2019-2020 harvest brings Smart traceability solutions thanks to an ad hoc digital platform designed and built by Almaviva.

The platform is based precisely on Blockchain technology, on Agriculture 4.0 models and on the principles of the Green Economy for the protection of producers and consumers, as it was explained at the conference "Rouge, the Sicilian Red Orange PGI becomes Smart", organized by the Protection consortium of the Red Orange of Sicily IGP, that was held in the Cavour Room of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Policies.

Transforming Agriculture 4.0 via Blockchain

At the meeting it was pointed out that the main advantages deriving from Rouge are the improvement of the control operations and therefore the fortification of the denomination together with the battle against counterfeiting, the simplification of bureaucratic obligations and the reduction of paper documents, the reduction of errors of imputation of the data, the monitoring of the sector by the Administration and the possibility of implementing strategies to promote the Red Orange of Sicily PGI on national and international markets.

In particular, the hi-tech sticker connected to the DLT system guarantees the certain recognition of the data, based on information coming from the public administration and from the firms linked to the Protection Consortium.

In fact, the initiative combines the skills of CREA - a research body - which collects and processes production info, of the University of Catania which develops economic models regarding the data collected in the field in support of manufacturing decisions, the Consortium and the members who monitor the progress of manufacturing.

This isn’t the first blockchain and DLT-based initiative to be applied in tracking agricultural products in Italy, most produces such as rice, carrots, milk, palm oil, fruits and vegetables, have been tracked and protected from being counterfeits using these futuristic technologies.