The new path of quality

These are the words of Chiara Coricelli, Chief Executive Officer of Pietro Coricelli S.p.A. and representative of the third generation. Today she is the face of the company. Resourceful and tenacious, she puts the curiosity and passion that have always distinguished her into her every day work. After her work experience in the United States, Chiara returned to Italy and, together with her brothers, took the reins of the family business to which she would give an international boost that has brought Coricelli products to tables all over the world. “Running an Italian company with my brothers, founded by my grandfather in 1939, gives me the opportunity to bond with my roots and at the same time to look forward and dedicate myself to my family’s future.”

The new Coricelli generation drives the company’s future by looking to technology as an essential support to ensure quality, sustainability and transparency.

Food traceability should be understood not only as the tool to identify the origin of a product but much more. Technology offers endless possibilities, and the data collected are invaluable to the transparency of processes and systems of entire supply chains. Furthermore, today more than ever, food traceability must respond to the need to guarantee conscious and sustainable consumption as well as protect the quality of the products “Made in Italy.”

Since, by law, the origins of the oil are already clearly stated on the label, Coricelli chose to develop the project with IBM FoodTrust to delve into the quality journey each oil takes before being bottled. This should be what the consumer needs to know in terms of safety and transparency. The company wanted to be the first Italian oil industry to take this important step, approaching the world of technology by making the information tracked through IBM Food Trust accessible to all.

Manufacturers and retailers are dealing with an increasingly demanding and attentive consumer who buys not only based on price but on the quality and history of the product and trust in the brand, which is built on transparency and information. “The relationship with this consumer is our priority, and we are directing our efforts towards this to ensure maximum transparency and quality.”

The key requirements that made the company choose IBM Food Trust were accessibility, security, assurance, and credibility. In fact, IBM blockchain was inserted into the production cycle in just a few months and applied to the best-selling product, the classic Pietro Coricelli extra virgin olive oil, to ensure all our consumers could access the certified reference. We took the next step with the 100% Italian “Signed by Italian Farmers” brand.

Coricelli is the industry leader in a three-year supply chain agreement for 2 million kilos of made-in-Italy olive oil with three organizations in the Apulia region. From this supply chain agreement comes the sustainable oil “Signed by Italian Farmers,” an extra virgin olive oil made in Italy, by blockchain and certified by supply chain. Food is a great treasure of “Made in Italy,” and blockchain gives it added value over its competitors: traced, secure and reliable. It also creates a direct benefit for farmers who produce quality. Clearly, the development of blockchain solutions without an accurate assessment of all existing challenges, including infrastructure, digital literacy and connectivity, could fail miserably in this heralded revolution, but not in the case of Coricelli.

Blockchain technology is an excellent tool for tracing the supply chain. Still, Coricelli understood that a “smart” way was needed to bring it to market and make it easily accessible to any reality, large or small, with a more or less articulated organization, because only in this way could it become the technology for “many.” Hence, the idea of ​​creating its own platform built on the blockchain technology of IBM Transparent Supply, a mature and reliable product, allowed for easy integration with any company’s ERP. Coricelli has therefore created “web services” for interfacing with company management systems and a “web app” dedicated to consumers who, through QR codes, can find information on the product from the olive to their table.

“The blockchain is also flexible and allows the entrepreneur to make his own interpretation: Chiara Coricelli, for example, wanted to use the blockchain to go beyond traceability, publishing the certificate of analysis from internal and external laboratories, highlighting those values ​​that distinguish the quality of its oil and thus also making it a solution for food safety.”

Stefano Graziani

CEO, SAS INFORMATICA SRL

Blockchain technology is an added value for ensuring the quality, trust, and transparency of an entire production process. 
One piece, however, is never enough because multiple actions aiming at one goal must converge simultaneously, each supporting the other.

Key among these actions was the training that all departments received to be ready for implementation resulting in a significant upgrade of internal professional skills and a new, distinctly digitized corporate culture.

From this fruitful collaboration with IBM and SAS Informatica, Coricelli has learned that anything is possible with commitment, dedication, and a little luck. 
Bringing technology to the food sector is a great challenge; it means using energy and financial resources and requires a large investment in sustainability. However, this commitment paid off both in terms of brand awareness and credibility and from the interest shown by consumers and the numerous requests to tell the Coricelli experience. It is confirmation that they are on the right track.

It was 1939 when Pietro Coricelli extra virgin olive oil made its debut on Italian tables, in Spoleto, in the heart of Umbria. A passion for the most genuine flavors handed down from generation to generation that has always seen family members involved, side by side, in the management of the company. Today Pietro Coricelli is among the largest oil companies in Europe and exports to over 110 countries in the world, thus representing one of the most distributed Italian brands globally.

SAS Informatica is a company specializing in hardware, software, and IT services. First company in Italy to adopt the IBM Blockchain technology.