The Zucchi 4.0 Seed supply chain

Traceability and sustainability

What are they?

Oleificio Zucchi launched the “4.0 Supply Chain” project in 2016 to maximise the value of both the traceability and the environmental, social and economic sustainability of sunflower seed oil, high oleic sunflower seed oil and soybean oil.

This process has been encouraged by digital innovation: the development of a dedicated portal has made it possible to collect a huge amount of data on all the stages in the supply chain (from seed growing to bottling and transport), in order to verify compliance with the requirements of the specification (DTP 112) needed for certification.

Why?

The starting point for all this is a basic need: the Italian oil seed supply chain is highly complex and extremely fragmented, with numerous producers and many steps between field and bottle. This makes product traceability difficult, creating a major disconnect between the world proposed to the consumer and what actually happens in the field. It is clear that to create a level playing field and transparency, we no longer have to focus on individual producers but on the supply chain as a whole.

Who is involved in Italy?

In the first phase, the data entry portal was implemented at Italian level, with the aim of certifying the sustainability of the Italian oil seed supply chain according to DTP 112, in partnership with Alimento Italia®.

What are the foreign supply chains?

The Supply Chain 4.0 project has been extended to European level, with ISCC Plus certification. The ISCC PLUS standard – International Sustainability & Carbon Certification – contributes to the implementation in global procurement chains of sustainable production and use, from environmental, social and economic standpoints.

What is the value added for Zucchi consumers?

The data collected in real time represents the basis for analysis, provides management insights and traces the product from field to bottle to assess the carbon footprint: an indicator that measures the extent to which the production of a good can influence climate change in terms of equivalent carbon dioxide emissions (CO2eq).

What contribution has digitalization made?

Digital technology also contributes to increasing the transparency of communication with the end consumer, who can access all available information about the extra virgin olive oil they have purchased and trace its origin by scanning the QR code on the bottle.

Zucchi supply chain

sustainability pillars

  • sustainability

    Environmental

    A structured set based on integrated defence, land sustainability, no-GMO, contaminant management, traceability and carbon footprint calculation.

  • sustainability

    Economic

    We develop a fair and shared model: our suppliers receive a fair economic return on their work, and all players in the supply chain comply with rules and good practices defined in DTP 112 (Product Technical Specification 112), ensuring absolute control over the sustainable supply chain.

  • sustainability

    Social

    The shared goal is to pool experiences and continuously improve sustainability, sharing tradition, know-how and technology as an integral part of the social capital. Training, sharing and communicating values on an ongoing basis ensure professionalism and better skills and techniques, which is why ours is a responsible and supportive model.