Digitalizing a Territorial Fresh-Produce Wholesale Market as a Physical-Internet Node: Container-Centric Traceability, Evidence Packages, and Controlled Transparency at Mercato Ortofrutticolo del Roero

Wholesale fresh-produce markets are critical territorial infrastructures, yet they remain difficult environments for Physical Internet deployment because operations are timecompressed, multi-actor, temperature-sensitive, and only partially digitalized. We present the design of a container-centric digitalization approach for Mercato Ortofrutticolo del Roero, framed as a Physical-Internet node. The approach combines reusable-crate identification, zone-based location awareness, EPCIS 2.0 event capture, auditable outbound aggregation, shipment evidence packages, and tiered data sharing. Our contribution is threefold. First, we formalize the reusable crate as the smallest accountable PI container in a territorial wholesale market. Second, we show how event-standardization and evidence packages can preserve accountability during consolidation without forcing full transparency across competing actors. Third, we define a deployment and evaluation protocol for a real SME-dense fresh-food hub, explicitly distinguishing the capture/interoperability layer from the market’s existing commercial and administrative systems. The paper contributes a rigorous design and replication blueprint for PI-compatible traceability in perishable logistics, while clarifying scope, interfaces, figures, and literature positioning in response to prior review feedback.