4 | REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Oritain Global NZ T TVirginia Wright Protecting people and the planet... Professor Russell Frew: “It took 20 years to be an overnight success”. In a world where it’s increasingly difficult to take anything at face value, Oritain bring certainty to global supply chains as a global leader in verifying the origin of products and raw materials. The science behind the proprietary methodology they use to trace those origins has its own origins in the University of Otago. In the late 1990s, chemical oceanographer Professor Russell Frew, while exploring the use of trace elements to understand ocean systems, worked for three and a half years with the British Antarctic Survey. “We used isotopes to look at how water masses moved around the globe. For example, we could take a sample at a depth of 5000 metres in the deep ocean near Greenland and identify that it started right down on the coast of the Antarctic in the Wedell Sea. We could trace that 20,000-kilometre journey with the isotopes,” Professor Frew explains. A call in 2001 from what was then the Ministry of Fisheries led to the first use of the isotope methodology in what became a successful $5,000,000 prosecution where they were able to prove that fish supposedly legally taken in the Chathams had in fact been illegally taken from the West Coast. Professor Frew then set up ‘Isotrace’ in 2003, a laboratory delivering an analytical service using that methodology, which eventually morphed into Oritain in 2008. In 2020, he bought the laboratory from the University of Otago when he joined Oritain as their chief scientific officer. The science remains at the core of what they offer, but it’s the service that has evolved around it that makes the company what it is today, and it was a small project demonstrating their ability to trace wool that led to a major boost for the company, the professor explains. “Every natural product, such as cotton, has a chemical composition that reflects the environment in which they grow. “Whether it’s trace elements from the soil, or the naturally occurring patterns of isotopes in the plant material, they vary globally. Essentially, nature produces a code, and we read that code. “Our science is trusted by governments, regulators, and leading brands worldwide, including US Customs and Border Protection, reinforcing the role forensic origin verification can play in supporting efforts to address forced labour and tariff compliance.” The same science and methodology that can verify that goods linked to forced labour in regions prohibited by global pieces of legislation, can now also be used as a preventative tool against other globally important initiatives. Under the impending European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), for example, several products such as beef, soy, palm oil and wood will not be able to be sold in the EU if they are linked to deforestation, and Oritain provides the means to verify that there is no such link. Oritain’s forensic verification services combine science, technology and statistics to audit company’s supply chains, identify risk points, and collect samples from anywhere in the supply chain. Such work can independently verify that, for example, the Egyptian cotton being purchased did in fact come from Egypt; or that the leather coming into France, which should be from Argentina, is in reality from an area linked to deforestation. Developed in Dunedin, the global service providing forensic origin verification enables hundreds of leading brands and suppliers to ethically source their products. It is now harnessed by Oritain, who employ 200 staff across offices in England, the United States, Singapore and New Zealand. The comapny were finalists in the Best Large Business category in last year’s New Zealand International Business Awards, it won the Environment award at the global Greater Good Awards, and were ranked second in the Deloitte Fast 50 Master of Growth Index. “It took 20 years to be an overnight success,” says Professor Frew wryly. “But those awards recognised our growth over recent years as a New Zealand story on the international stage.” New CEO Alyn Franklin is leading their continuing evolution - “out of the entrepreneurial phase,” as the professor puts it - to focus on more closely matching their technology to an ever-changing market. He says Oritain is well placed to further develop its international presence, to keep supply chains honest, and to continue protecting the planet and its people through the 21st century. 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