UB Executive Conference: Steve Sands Says the Call for Transparency is Real

The second half of the day kicked off after lunch on Tuesday with Steve Sands Vice President of Protein, Performance Foodservice. His presentation on differentiating products through branding and transparency illustrated the topic from a relevant and applicable standpoint as it relates to the value chain.

Sands asserted that restaurants today need a story. Today’s consumer is asking: “Do you have my back?”

“But if you’re going to tell a story, you better make sure that story is real. Because food fraud is at an all-time high,” Sands noted.

Many companies are only pursuing transparency after getting burned. But this trend is not going away and it’s better to be proactive.

In fact, the call for transparency is so real that...

Cargill to Grow Pakistan Business with US$200 Million Investment

Cargill renewed its long standing commitment to Pakistan by announcing plans to invest more than US$200 million in the next three-to-five years. The announcement was made in the meeting when Cargill’s global executive team, led by Marcel Smits, head of Global Strategy and Chairman, Cargill Asia Pacific region, and Gert-Jan van den Akker, president, Cargill Agricultural Supply Chain, met with the Honorable Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mr. Imran Khan and other senior government officials to discuss the company’s future investment plans.

Being a global food and agriculture producer with a strong focus on Asia, Cargill aims to partner in Pakistan’s growth by bringing its global expertise and investment into the country. The company’s strategy includes expansion across its agricultural trading and supply chain, edible oils, dairy, meat and ...

IBM Food Trust Expands Blockchain Network to Foster a Safer, More Transparent and Efficient Global Food System

IBM Announces General Availability of IBM Food Trust as Carrefour Joins Major Supermarkets and Consumer Goods Leaders

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced growing adoption of its food supply chain network, IBM Food Trust. The blockchain-based cloud network offers participating retailers, suppliers, growers and food industry providers with data from across the food ecosystem to enable greater traceability, transparency and efficiency.

The network is now generally available after 18 months in testing, during which millions of individual food products have been tracked by retailers and suppliers.

The ecosystem of network participants continues to grow, and today, leading global retailer Carrefour announced they will use the IBM Food Trust blockchain network to strengthen their food excellence actions. As one of the world's leading retailers with more than 12,000 stores in 33 countries, Carrefour stores will initially...