With ITOCHU’s “Project Tree” initiative, developments and enhancements to sustainable developments can be implemented on the natural rubber supply chain. They’ve developed a block-chain-based traceability app to prevent deforestation by proving the raw material source with GPS. Those data taken by the traceability app will be published to the customers on ARDC’s platform.
AR was engaged to integrate their traceability app with the AR product suite so that the raw material data can be shared seamlessly with buyers of traceable natural rubber. Prior to this project, the factory staff would collect self-declared sourcing information and enter it into ARPDC.
We successfully integrated ITOCHU’s traceability app with ARPDC such that:
- When the raw material is delivered to the factory, the traceability data is automatically sent to ARPDC’s raw material procurement module.
- Unique identifiers are assigned to each batch of raw material as it goes through the different process for easy tracking.
- Once the raw material is processed into Technically Specified Rubber (TSR), the traceability data of all raw material used for each batch of TSR is aggregated.
- The traceable TSR is traded on ARP where buyers can access the traceability data of each contract. The traceability data can be viewed as a data table or visualized on a map of the surrounding areas to see the proximity to conservation areas. Additional analysis or risk assessments can be developed according to the buyers’ requirements.
Media links
- Project Tree website link

ITOCHU
ITOCHU Corporation, one of the leading sogo shosha with approximately 110 bases in 63 countries, engages in domestic trading, import/export, and overseas trading of various products including natural rubber (NR). Its mission in the NR industry is to strive for supply chain transparency and sustainability.