Oregon Stakes Claim as the Most Transparent Supply Chains on Earth, starting with Food and Beverage
Portland, Ore., June 21st, 2021
A group of Oregon companies, business associations, and academic institutions today announced the formation of the Oregon Transparency Initiative (OTI), a public-private collaboration created to establish Oregon’s supply chains as the most transparent in the world. The group will initially focus on Oregon’s vibrant food and beverage industry before expanding to other sectors of the economy.
Global supply chains are notoriously complex and opaque. Supply chain transparency gives businesses the visibility they need to manage their operations more effectively, to ensure food safety and quality, and ultimately to ensure they can keep their promises to consumers.
Increased transparency also allows brands to respond to growing consumer demand for more information about the products they buy; Information that empowers consumers to make better informed decisions about the products they buy, use, and consume; Information that aligns with consumers’ values.
Companies
An outgrowth of the Oregon Enterprise Blockchain Venture Studio (OEBVS), and launched by Oregon-based company, The Provenance Chain™ Network, the effort will first focus on Oregon’s vibrant food and beverage sector. A leading group of prominent Oregon companies are already committed to the initiative. Founding members and supporters include:
Commercial Partners
Academic Partners
Government
Oregon State Treasurer
Tobias Read
Business Associations
Each of these companies has committed to engage their supplier networks to share more information about how and where things are sourced and made; In short, to make their operations more transparent.
Patrick Criteser
President and CEO
Tillamook County Creamery Association
"
As an agricultural cooperative, our nearly 80 farmer-owners provide the milk which makes our dairy products, so we know firsthand the value of engaging with our suppliers. The Oregon Transparency Initiative will help Oregon businesses drive toward more responsible sourcing practices and will establish Oregon’s food and beverage community as the most transparent in the world."
"
We're proud to be the first winery to join the Oregon Transparency Initiative and track the provenance and progression of our wine from grape to glass. This level of transparency is a natural extension for us as Oregon's first B Corp certified winery, and we're grateful for the opportunity to partner with a group dedicated to doing the right thing.”
Sam Tannahill
Founder
A to Z Wineworks
Progressive Leadership
The Oregon Transparency Initiative builds on Oregon’s long history of progressive thinking and major legislative firsts. Oregon was the first state to introduce vote by mail, to officially celebrate Labor Day as a holiday, to decriminalize cannabis, to make a zero coal pledge, to levy a gas tax, and to introduce a bottle bill.
Oregon State Treasurer, Tobias Read, said “Providing greater transparency in Oregon producers’ supply chains is good for the long term competitiveness of Oregon’s economy, as well as for consumers. Oregon is fortunate to be home to these iconic companies, and these leaders are positioning the state for continued economic success.”
The Oregon Transparency Initiative honors Oregon’s legacy of firsts and seeks to position Oregon businesses as having the most transparent supply chains not only in the country, but on the planet. We believe this initiative will give Oregon businesses a significant competitive advantage on the global stage and once again place Oregon in a leadership position at the forefront of innovation. The Oregon Transparency Initiative is a world-class idea that will be proven in Oregon.
Oregon academia has also stepped forward to support the Oregon Transparency Initiative. Portland State University, Oregon State University, and the University of Oregon have all pledged to support the effort. The initiative is also supported by Business Oregon, All The Farms, and the Technology Association of Oregon.
The initiative’s early focus on the food and beverage industry will build on Oregon’s reputation for sustainable living, a foodie culture, and farm-to-fork thinking.
Many more food and beverage companies are expected to join the initiative in the coming weeks. And later this year, the Oregon Transparency Initiative expects to welcome participants from other industrial sectors including leading companies from Oregon’s world-famous footwear and apparel sector.
As consumers clamor for more information about the products they buy, and brands seek increased efficiency and lower risk in their supply chains, transparency is becoming a core requirement for the future of every business.
Rather than wait for this change to happen to them, Oregon businesses have chosen to step up, shape this demand, and take a global leadership position consistent with Oregon’s ethos as a beacon of progressive change and sustainable living.
Oregon Enterprise Blockchain Venture Studio (OEBVS)
Designed to drive blockchain-led innovation, cross-industry, the Oregon Enterprise Blockchain Venture Studio is a state-sponsored, public-private collaboration focused on developing startup-led products, services, and tools that can help Studio partners realize the full potential of blockchain technologies — from decentralized, organizational constructs to new ways of using data to drive business. OEBVS is based in Portland, Oregon where it seeks to make Oregon a global center of excellence for blockchain-based companies.
Provenance Chain™ Network
The Provenance Chain™ Network, based in Portland, Oregon, offers a breakthrough, multi-industry transparency solution that embraces open standards and uses a unique system of requirements, incentives, claims and evidence to bring significant benefit to brand owners, consumers, regulators, retailers, and the economy.