Cargill’s global edible oils business is using digitalization to bring real-time data of global commodities to customers’ fingertips through the launch of MiApp, an app solution available in North America. The market intelligence mobile application provides customers with features including continuous visibility on global commodity prices, which can immediately impact the cost of edible oils. The app is the first digital mobile app of its kind to provide around-the-clock commodity information tailored to the needs of food industry customers.

The app is designed to provide the convenience and simplicity of an everyday app to help them stay on top of market risks when managing their business objectives, according to Cargill’s Global Price Risk Solutions Lead, Tom King. “This is an opportunity to make smarter decisions that can yield better results and help separate a business from the competition,” he adds.

Cargill has partnered with its customers for over 25 years to help them manage food ingredient price risk by providing market news and commodity price information. The app was successfully launched this summer in Europe to a select group of edible oil customers and has since grown to more than 100 customers.

King expects the app to grow quickly thanks to its agile approach. “As we consider periodic updates to MiApp, additional content and contributions from other Cargill business groups covering adjacent food ingredients will be included. As a next step, MiApp will be launched early in 2020 in South America and the Asia Pacific.”

The MiApp tool builds on the business’s digital offerings to customers, which include the launch of myCargill.com, a 24/7 customer portal for a pilot group of edible oil customers in the US and is now expanded to pilot customers in Malaysia.

Origins in an online portal
Since its launch last spring, the myCargill.com customer portal has doubled the number of edible oil customers participating in the US pilot, while expanding platform features. Customers who could initially place orders online, review order history and invoices, view food safety information and access product specifications, can now also view contract balances.

“Where once we manually prepared Excel spreadsheets, myCargill.com gives customers instant insights at any time of day or night,” says Julie Robey, Marketing Leader for Cargill’s Global Edible Oils Business in North America.“ Technology and digitalization can help us address some of the greatest challenges facing the global food system,” says Gonzalo Petschen, group leader for Cargill’s global edible oils business. “Our customers are asking for faster, round-the-clock access to information and MiApp and myCargill.com are two great examples of tools that can help us better meet their needs.”

Other apps in the space

Digitalization, mobile apps and other technologies have been widely embraced by the food ingredients industry to help everything from transparency in the supply chain to better efficiency to tracking deforestation.

A coalition of ten major palm oil producers and buyers are joining forces to support and fund the development of a new, publicly available radar-based forest monitoring system, Radar Alerts for Detecting Deforestation (RADD). The technology was developed in a bid to see deforestation as it is happening.

Meanwhile, the Israeli start-up AgriTask secured funding for an Android app-supported platform that can be used by farmers and other stakeholders to improve grower monitoring and yield prediction, covering 20 countries worldwide and over 50 crop types.

Apps also provide a way for consumers to engage. UPM Raflatac has created a RafMore smart label solution to recycling containers, which customers can mark for pick up with the use of a mobile app.

Other technologies aim to decentralize control of information through blockchain. The Australia-based OpenSC raised US$4 million in seed funding, to propel the development of its digital platform. The company plans to leverage blockchain and other technologies to advance the transparency of food products known to have significant environmental or social injustice risks.