OIL4MED

In Mediterranean basin, the olive oil production is mainly assured by small farmers which are characterized by high production costs and low profit level. This is due to the fact that the market is controlled mainly by powerful and big companies, that impose low prices on small farmers for raw materials compared to the price at which end products are sold to the final customer. In fact, nowadays, small farmers are unable to access the supply chain’s information system and sell their olive crops at fair prices. Our project OIL4MED will identify and engage main players in the olive oil supply chain (olive grower-consumer “farm-to-fork”), in order to assure fair price for all the stakeholders and wide open the market for new entrepreneurs. OIL4MED vision is to create a disruptive collaborative supply chain management system that changes the traditional existing one (linear model) to a new one that focuses on creating transparent overview on the product value chain, fair prices/market share and sustainable business for all stakeholders. This will be achieved by ensuring open access ICT-based application, exchanging knowledge, creating synergies between small producers and using novel technologies. OIL4MED platform will be a combination of Blockchain and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies suited for local clusters of small farmers, small manufacturers and SMEs for each country. The traceability, transparency, efficiency and secure communication of our platform will be ensured by the use of innovative technology (Blockchain and IoT) in the Oil Agri-Food supply chain. OIL4MED will assist small farms through tailored business models enabling them to improve profitability and to commercialize their products in an efficient and cost-effective way. OIL4MED vision and ambition will be guaranteed by our multidisciplinary consortium team, composed of 3 European partners (IFAPA from Spain, University of Pisa from Italy, Instituto Superior de Agronomia of Lisbon from Portugal) and 2 Tunisian partners (Olive Institute and University of Sousse from Tunisia). OIL4MED will also strengthen partners’ expertise, both professor-researchers and technical staff, in different fields: ICT-based solutions (IoT, DLT, Apps) and Blockchain.