Consumers purchasing premium Sicilian blood oranges will be able to track the provenance of the product using a new system that combines NFC tags and sensors placed on each box of oranges with a blockchain-based tracking system.

The stickers placed on each box provide information on “the product’s origins and characteristics, facilitates customs procedures and monitors the condition and the temperature of the oranges during transport to ensure the excellent quality of the fruit anywhere,” says Almaviva, which developed the technology used in the Red Orange Upgrading Green Economy (Rouge) project.

“With a tag or NFC sticker affixed to the fruit crates and sophisticated sensors that check transport conditions such as humidity and temperature, the app allows the user to monitor the field of production via the geolocation system of publicly available maps, the date of harvest and the storage and distribution methods used,” explains Fulvio Conti, head of Almaviva’s agriculture and environment practice.

“The consumer can trace the entire history of each pack of Blood Oranges of Sicily through their own smartphone.”

“These oranges are a jewel in the crown of Made in Italy produce,” says Giovanni Selvaggi, president of the Blood Oranges of Sicily IGP Protection Consortium, the organisation which polices the fruit’s ‘Indicazione Geografica Protetta’ — Indication of Geographic Protection — certification

“Over 50% of the total national output comes from Sicily: in 2018, the figure amounted to roughly 1,000,000 tons out of a national total of 1,622,000 tons. Counterfeiting and fraud are damaging to the consumer and cause losses for producers.

“The platform was created to protect Blood Oranges of Sicily IGP and the global exportation of this unique product, which this year also reached the Chinese market.”

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