For my lads, ragazzi, chum, khoya and family
Contents
Introduction ................................................................................ 2
Chapter 1: Traceability and transparency in the Food Supply
Chain ........................................................................................... 5
1.1 Traceability and transparency definition .................................... 5
1.2 Motivation and benefits of traceability in Food Supply Chain ........ 7
1.3 Challenges of Supply Chain and Food Traceability .................... 12
Chapter 2: Blockchain integrated food Supply Chain ................. 13
2.1 Blockchain overview ............................................................. 13
2.2 Functional characteristics of blockchain-based traceability ......... 15
2.3 A blockchain integrated food Supply Chain .............................. 17
2.4 Benefits of Blockchain traceability systems versus Traditional ones
............................................................................................... 21
2.5 Research limitation: still a new technology .............................. 24
Chapter 3: Blockchain traceability systems designs and strategic
value for agri-businesses .......................................................... 26
3.1 Blockchain design to support Strategic Value Creation for
Companies ................................................................................ 26
3.2 IBM and Hyperledger Fabric blockchain solution for food
traceability and transparency ...................................................... 27
3.3 Blockchain-As-A-Service for traceability in food Supply Chain .... 32
Chapter 4: Case Study: Walmart usage of blockchain to improve
traceability and transparency in its Supply Chain ...................... 35
4.1 Walmart presentation ........................................................... 35
4.2 Blockchain traceability impact on Walmart Value Chain ............. 36
4.3 IBM-Walmart Partnership ...................................................... 39
4.4 Traceability of the fresh cut pork product in China .................... 42
4.5 Traceability of mango product sold in the U.S. ......................... 49
4.6 Walmart learnings and the future of blockchain in food Supply
Chain ....................................................................................... 55
Chapter 5: Discussion and limitations ....................................... 57
Conclusion ................................................................................. 60
Bibliography .............................................................................. 63
1
Introduction
Food traceability and transparency are very important aspects of food
production and food Supply Chains. They allow the agri-food actors to
ensure the safety and quality of their products.
Additionally, they can
provide information to consumers concerning the origin, lifecycle, and
environmental aspects of certain food production.
Customer are becoming increasingly concerned by not only the product
quality, but also its origin, production methods and impacts. Food safety
has long been a major concern around the world. Food poisoning kills
roughly 420,000 people each year (WHO, 2015). The 2006 E-Coli outbreak
showed the weakness of food Supply Chain with an estimated economic loss
of $350 million in the US (Hussain and Dawson, 2013), with 199 person
contaminated and 102 hospitalized (CDC, 2006). In 2013, the Horse Meat
scandal reduced customer trust in a widespread case of global food fraud
(BBC, 2013). Consumers expect more information and ways to verify the
authenticity of the products they buy from the producers. According to IBM
(2020), consumers embrace social causes, and seek products and brands
that align with their values (sustainability, fair trade). 71% of people
indicate that traceability is very important are willing to pay a premium for
brands that provide it, 57% of consumers consider environmental impact
when purchasing a product and 55% of people claim they would switch
brands following a recall (IBM, 2019). Bateman and Bonanni (2019) shared
that consumers willingness to pay more for products increased by 2% to
2
10% when companies provide greater Supply Chain transparency.
Moreover, the cost of food-related concern represents a large impact on
agrobusiness. The brand reputation cost is very high after scandals and it
takes years to build back the market share and trust lost (Independent,
2013). The entire cost of food-related concerns in the United States ranges
from $55.5 billion to $93.2 billion per year, including medical bills to
economic losses from decreased production, destroyed food and reputation
loss affecting sales (Scharff, 2015). According to IBM (2020), this cost has
risen by 20% in the last four years.
Currently, there are many different systems available for food traceability,
but many are inefficient in complexes Supply Chain which involve a lot of
paperwork and do not guarantee trustworthy information. Recently, with
the creation of Bitcoin in 2008, blockchain technologies have emerged and
their applications to many sector has been theorized. Although still in a
nascent stage, some say 2022 should see a strong demand for blockchain
chain technologies (Forbes, 2022). Supply Chain blockchain has received a
lot of attention with the potential to increase efficiency, productivity or
reducing costs. Transparency and traceability in food industries are a good
example and these are following an increasing demand for supply-chainrelated data on ingredients quality, food fraud, animal welfare, and labor
conditions (IBM, 2020). However, it is important to acknowledge that the
technologies are immature and still in their hype phase (Carson et al.,
2018).
3
With these benefits in mind, the first chapter will discuss the literature
review on traceability and transparency of the Supply Chain. The second
one will explain the functioning of blockchain technologies and blockchain
integrated Supply Chain, while the third will present the most famous
adopted blockchain framework for Supply Chain value creation. The fourth
will present the analysis of Walmart blockchain integrated Supply Chain of
its mango and pork products. Finally, the fifth chapter will discuss and
explain the key findings and limitations of the analysis.
4
Chapter 1: Traceability and transparency in the Food
Supply Chain
1.1 Traceability and transparency definition
This thesis will aim to address the benefits and impact of traceability and
transparency in food Supply Chain. To begin with it is important to define
these key words. Academically, although the terms are often used
interchangeably, most definitions of traceability define it as the ability to
follow the movement of food products throughout the Supply Chain,
whereas transparency as how this information is shared to other actors.
(Opara,
2003)
definition
“[Traceability]
refers
to
the
collection,
documentation, maintenance, and application of information related to all
processes in the Supply Chain in a manner that provides guarantees to the
consumer and other stakeholders on the origin, location and life history of
a product as well as assisting in crises management in the event of a safety
and quality breach.” share the idea that traceability is a tool to enable the
capture of data and is beneficial to the Supply Chain. Information collection
on the processes of the Supply Chain to provide all stakeholder visibility of
the product life and path, ensure greater safety and quality outcome. This
idea is also shared by Bosona and Grebenbet (2013), who argue that
traceability means capturing all the physical steps and data associated to
them, from the different resources, activities and actors involved in its
production and distribution.
5
As an example of food traceability, Dickinson & Bailey (2002) define meat
traceability as the “ability to trace the retail meat back to the farm or [the]
animal of origin]” and transparency as “knowing the meat was produced
without added growth hormones, or knowing the animal was humanely
treated”.
Some organization specialize in assessing and certifying the traceability and
transparency of businesses’ Supply Chain. As an example, the International
Organization for Standardization (ISO) has a 9000 series on quality
management and quality insurance. In it, it defines traceability as the ability
to trace the history, application, use and location of an item or its
characteristics through recorded identification data. The 9000 family
includes several norms, in the 9000:2015 on quality management systems,
Subclause 8.5.2 Identification and Traceability states the following three
requirements around identification and traceability: ”
i.
Use suitable means to identify outputs when it is necessary to
ensure the conformity of products and services.
ii.
Identify the status of outputs with respect to monitoring and
measuring requirements throughout
production and
service
provision.
iii.
Control the unique identification of the outputs when traceability is
a requirement and retain documented information to enable
traceability.”
6
This norm specifies that the records of product information (that could be
origin, process or different location points) are the key output used to
enable traceability. (ISO, 2015)
According to Norton (2019), Supply Chain traceability is the process of
tracking the provenance, route of products and their inputs from the
beginning of the Supply Chain to the end. Traceability allows companies to
find Supply Chain efficiencies, to follow regulations, to build trust and to
connect with all the actors of the chain. Meanwhile, Supply Chain
transparency refers the disclosure strategy of the information of the Supply
Chain to stakeholders. Any organization seeking building customer trust
must think about transparency from the start. In this thesis, we will the
above definition as a reference point.
1.2 Motivation and benefits of traceability in Food Supply Chain
Bosona et Gebresenbet (2013) argue that food traceability has for goal the
safety of food and the control of quality. Improving the traceability and
transparency in Supply Chain has benefits for all the participants of the
Supply Chain. Bateman and Bonanni (2019) share serval operational and
competitive advantages of food traceability and transparency:
•
Supply Chain efficiencies from better knowledge on the Supply Chain.
It allows companies to identify opportunities for improvement,
reducing communication costs between participants and build a better
long-term strategy
•
Compliance with regulations
7
•
Transparent Supply Chains also reduce the scandals risk and improve
a company's reputation as a reliable business.
•
Attraction and fidelity of customer and stakeholders: individuals who
to work and shop at companies that matches their values. I.e
Patagonia and Nike receive a lot of job applications and have a low
staff turnover rate, which is partly due to their reputation as
responsible corporations. Patagonia claim a low staff turnover rate of
less than 4% each year.
•
Consumer
trust
and
satisfaction
improvement
by
enhancing
accountability and truth in messages
Food Industry and their Supply Chain benefits from improvement in
traceability and transparency. Zhang and Ting (2017) argue that the
implementation of food traceability systems is driven by many different
forces. These forces can be categorized under five concerns: safety and
quality, economic, social, regulatory, technological. He also argues that
food traceability systems are a consequence of customer demand and
government regulations, that food companies must address. Finally, there
are also potential economic benefits behind the adoption of better
traceability systems, from allowing better flow and transfer of information
within the Supply Chain. In example, capturing essential products attributes
(i.e vaccination status / ownership report) at the first step and sharing it to
every participants reduces communication and middleman costs and
provides value for all participants.
8
In this thesis will bring a particular look at how traceability is a key factor
for food fraud reduction, better food safety and a competitive and economic
advantage.
Reducing Food Fraud
Research from (Aung et Chang, 2014; Bosona et Gebresenbet, 2013) share
that improving traceability will reduce food fraud, allowing a better
identification of cheating parties and by pro-actively de-incentivizing food
fraud tentative by malicious actors.
From a customer and regulator point of view, better traceability system will
enable better tracking and transparency of product journey to limit food
fraud and improve food safety. According to the EU regulation, food fraud
is “any suspected intentional action by businesses or individuals for the
purpose of deceiving purchasers and gaining undue advantage therefrom,
in violation of the rules referred to in Article 1(2) of Regulation (EU)
2017/625 (the agri-food chain legislation)”.
The horse meat scandal of 2013 is a good example of food fraud resulting
from lack of traceability. In several parts of Europe, the food advertised as
containing beef was found to contain horsemeat or pork meat. These
different meats were not or improperly declared, reaching 100% of the
meat content in some cases (BBC, 2013). This issue came public when
horse DNA was identified in products. Although the presence of undeclared
meat this time was not a health issue, it represented a major trust scandal
from false advertisement. According to some investigations, the horse meat
9
was slaughtered in Romania clearly and correctly labelled as horse.
However, its label was changed later to beef. Companies faced the
consequences of a lack of traceability of the food Supply Chain. This food
fraud case shows that malicious actors have tampered with the product
information in the Supply Chain (BBC, 2013). In consequences, consumers
and other participants have been lied to and bought a product without full
knowledge of its content.
Improvement of Food safety
(Opara, 2003) argues that the capture of product information against safety
standards and production process details will simplify the identification of
non-compliant products. Traceability systems will allow a better and faster
identification of the root causes, responsible actors will be identified easily,
customer trust will increase and number of recalls and the associated costs
will be decreased.
Traceability systems will also support the collection all the product
information related to health and safety. With as effect, improving the
identification of non-compliant products.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2015), 1 in 10 people
fall ill after eating contaminated food. Unsafe food contains harmful
bacteria, viruses, parasites, or chemical substances that are the root cause
of many diseases, resulting in 420 00 death and impacting the health of 33
million persons.
Decrease of costs & Competitive advantage
10
Golan et al. (2004) point out that a traceability system tends to improve
the Supply Chain in its whole. Indeed, the efficiency gains generated by one
end of the chain are transmitted throughout the chain. An efficient
traceability system allows a quick transmission of data and eliminates
duplication of checks between the different parties in the chain. Information
and transactions costs (electronically implemented) are reduced. Thus,
overall production and distribution costs can be optimized.
Moreover, the advantage of being able to specifically trace the batches
affected by the defect is that they can be identified and removed from the
market, reducing losses related to negative consequences on corporate
reputation (Golan et al., 2004).
The E-Coli outbreak of 2006 had an economic cost evaluated at 350 $Million
(Hussain and Dawson, 2013). E Coli had contaminated a batch of fresh
spinach. It took 2 weeks for the FDA to trace the origin farm. It was only 1
supplier, 1 farm, 1 lot and1 day production that created this massive health
issue. As a result, all the spinach was destroyed, and the farmers livelihood
affected, as consequences of the inability to trace the origin of the product.
Finally, traceability systems are a competitive advantage by improving
brand image and consumer trust Golan et al. (2004). Proving the claims
made by the product (quality or origin) and reinforcing customer trust
versus competitors products.
11
1.3 Challenges of Supply Chain and Food Traceability
Modern day Supply Chains are very complex, involving many different
actors and cross border operations. The different actors often work isolated
in silos, overall communication between them is often kept to minimum due
to a lack of global structure. This is causing efficiency and cost issues,
limiting
the
data
availability,
and
impacting
negatively
trust
and
transparency (Jain, 2021).
According to (Zhang and Ting, 2017), food traceability challenges can be
categorized between awareness limitation, economic limitation, information
limitation and standard limitation.
-
Awareness limitation: traceability is perceived as bureaucratic, and
companies are reluctant at investing, paying less attention to quality
and safety monitoring
-
Economic limitation: traceability is perceived as a cost burden and
additional work necessary for all the Supply Chain stakeholder
(implying
labor
cost).
Additionally,
there
are
difficulties
in
coordinating and allocating cost of across the chain
-
Information limitation: food traceability systems suffer from lack of
complete; accurate and easily accessible data as well as information
asymmetry
-
Standard limitation: different stakeholders mean different standards,
provoking a lack of uniformity, different level of accuracy in the data
as well as trust issues between the different partners.
12
Hence,
the
agri-food
Supply
Chain
benefits
from
traceability
and
transparency to become more sustainable, as well as improving customer
trust and their purchase willingness. Identifying and addressing the source
of food hazard or contamination in the food Supply Chain is possible with
tracking and authenticating of all the data along the product path (Zhao et
al., 2017, Bosona and Gebresenbet, 2013).
Chapter 2: Blockchain integrated food Supply Chain
2.1 Blockchain overview
Blockchain is a recent and fast-growing technology that has drawn interest
in many different sectors. Blockchain was introduced in 2008 with the
creation of Bitcoin. The blockchain is also referred as distributed ledger
technology and was created specifically for the cryptocurrency (by
Nakamoto in 2008). In summary, Bitcoin is a virtual currency where
ownership of bitcoin assets is recorded and verified on the blockchain.
Blockchain technology removes the reliance on intermediaries that usually
centralize the operation of monetary assets (banks, financial firms,
insurance companies…). This is done by building a decentralized ledger that
is distributed across all the participant of the network, where are all
transactions are recorded and verified by its participants. This thesis doesn’t
have for intention to explain Bitcoin and the technologies being the
blockchain, but it is important to understand how the blockchain works to
13
understand why it enables specific applications. (Tripoli and Schmidhuber,
2018).
Blockchain as a trust solution for databases
According to Deloitte, blockchain technologies, also called distributed
ledgers, “provide a way for information to be recorded and shared by a
community. In this community, each member maintains his own copy of
the information, and all members must validate any updates collectively”
(Deloitte, 2017). In regular databases, data is managed by one party
(usually stored in central servers). This party has full control of the data,
and the users trust that the data will not be altered by this central authority.
However, with a unique owner of the database, the data is sensible to
tampering by this owner. Hence, in traditional database, trust in the central
party is essential for its functioning. This issue is referred as the single
point of failure. The solution to the single point of failure of a central owner
is to share the ownership and maintenance of the database to all the users
of the network.
Xu et al. (2020) present the blockchain technologies as referring to the
combination of cryptographic and peer-to-peer (P2P) technologies and
design build to support the distributed ledger. A network of computer
executes a pre-determined protocol to maintain a record of transactions,
that are stored in “blocks”. This block contains data (i.e transaction record)
and the hash value of the preceding block. All blocks are linked to each
14
other with these “hashes”, like in a chain (hence the name blockchain). This
hash and block combination are what makes this blockchain working.
The Blockchain follow several rules:
1) Data must be consistent: Addition of data cannot be in contradiction with
data that is already existing in the blockchain
2) Data can only be added on the top of what already exist in the blockchain,
previous data cannot be altered. I.e the transfer of asset from a previous
owner to a new one is recorded in a new block with the change in ownership,
but the information that the previous owner once had the asset at a point
in time will always be present.
3) All the computing systems maintaining the distributed ledger must agree
on the similar data (two computing systems cannot have different data)
4) No single entity can modify unilaterally the data
2.2 Functional characteristics of blockchain-based traceability
Feng et al. (2020) argue that blockchain technologies represent an
innovation solution for distributed data storage and transfer. The key
blockchain characteristics of blockchain applicable to traceability are the
following:
- Decentralization
and trust in the
network: Decentralization and
distribution of the data in Blockchain enable high level of integrity and
security. With no central server and central entity to control the data
management, this provides a reliable and tamper-proof source of
15
information. In a decentralized system, all nodes hold records of the data,
exchange between each other and guarantee the security of the whole
network. These networks are robust to manipulation and provide high
degrees of trust. (Bosona and Gebresenbet, 2013).
- Consensus mechanism and immutability of the data: All party of the
network reach consensus and agree on the new data put into new block.
Data is stored on the Blockchain in timestamped blocks that are connected
chronologically by cryptographic hashes. Because Blockchain records are
immutable, data modification after being added is not possible and
malicious actors cannot alter it. (Wang et al., 2019a).
- Smart contracts to enhance traceability processes: Transaction recorded
in the blockchain can be automated using smart contract. When a
participant initiates a traceability action (through scanning, sensor, or any
other pre-defined input) that follow a rule, smart contract will record an
entry in the blockchain to validate the rule. A smart contract, like any other
transaction on the blockchain, cannot be withdrawn or changed once it is
formed. (Wang et al., 2019a). With smart contracts, data is captured and
shared easily to the rest of the network. I.e the stable temperature can be
recorded every 24h hours through sensor and combined with Internet of
Things IoT shared into the blockchain with a smart contract. Feng et al.
(2020) adds that the combination of smart contract and IoT helps capturing
reliable data inputs and limits error record (i.e from manual entries)
16
- Customization of transparency and access of the data: Blockchains have
numerous customization possibilities and companies can set the conditions
for which participants can be involved and specify which data is visible by
the participants (Feng et al., 2020). First, blockchains can be private or
public. In public blockchains, everyone can see every transactions and
participate. In private blockchains, the access is restricted to some
participants and decided by a central entity. This is convenient to control
who is invited and can participate. I.e companies have private information
that they want to keep confidential and not being public shared. Second,
blockchains can also be permissioned or permissionless. Permissionless
blockchain are like public blockchain where any one can read and
participate. However, in permissioned blockchain participants can read the
information but cannot participate unless given the right to. This
customization possibilities to design platform with different roles. (IBM,
2017)
2.3 A blockchain integrated food Supply Chain
(Tripoli and Schmidhuber, 2018) argue that the technology provides
immutable data records and traceable transaction history, that can be used
to improve efficiency, transparency, and traceability. In recent years, the
food and agriculture industry have shown a strong interest for the
technology and many initiatives have surfaced to leverage the ability of
17
blockchain to trace data in order to improve the safety and quality of the
global food Supply Chains.
The food chain is composed of many steps with different actors such as
farmers, processors, shipping companies, distributors, and retailer. A
traditional food Supply Chain can be represented as below (Caro et al.
2018):
1. Production: This phase includes all the farm's agricultural activities, to
raise crops and cattle (fertilisers, seeds, animal breeds, and feeds).
2. Processing: This phase start by the transformation of a raw product into
another form (or several). This product is often packaged, and identified
with a production batch ID code that includes information such as the dates,
ingredients utilised etc.
3. Distribution: Following processing, the product is transported to the
retailers. Some in-between step might happen basis the Supply Chain size
and complexity.
4. Retailing: This is where the product is received (Retailers) and offered to
sale to customers.
5. Consumption: The customer is the chain's final user; he or she purchases
the product. This customer chooses products based on a information on
quality standards, country of origin, and manufacturing procedures,
traceability support his decision.
18
In traditional food Supply Chains, product transactions are usually only
recorded internally and heavily really on paperwork, affecting the
transparency. Fraud of data
is possible,
many
intermediaries are
exchanging the goods, increasing cost and inefficiencies. Cost of Supply
Chain operation can range from 10 to 20% of the revenue of a product, and
optimization of the Supply Chain can reduce cost up to 25% (Oliver W).
(Tripoli and Schmidhuber, 2018) argue that this system is not efficient and
cannot be trusted.
According to Feng et al. (2020), Internet of Thing (IoT) already offer a
possibility to capture this data. Technologies such as scan, QR codes, Radio
Frequency Identification (RFID), Wireless Sensors Network (WSN), Near
Field communication (NFC). These smart devices capture and share data at
the different phases of the product journey. However, their implementation
at each step and a central collection of all the data from participant is
challenging.
Using the generic agri-food Supply Chain model presented above, below is
the description of a blockchain integrated food Supply Chain and all the
information that can be recorded. At each step, information is captured
creating a digital flow (using digital technologies such QR codes scan, RFID,
NFC or simplify a data entry from a web interface). These information are
shared via Internet to the blockchain infrastructure. The capture of all the
key information can be uploaded automatically (smart contract) or manually
(manual data entry input):
19
1. Provider and Producer: Record all the crop, pesticide, fertiliser
application, machinery engaged information, weather conditions, animals
records… The transaction between the farmer and producer are also
recorded.
2. Processor: Factory, equipment, processing methods, batch numbers,
hygiene records etc are recorded. As above, the transactions between the
previous and following actor of the chain are recorded too.
3. Distributor: Itinerary and transportation data (type of transportation,
container information, time in transit, temperature, humidity) etc. All
transactions between the distributors and actors engaged (i.e. retailers) are
recorded.
5. Retailer: Share the product information, processing and consumption
recommended dates, usage and time spend in the shop are recorded.
6. Consumer: When doing the grocery, the customer can access all the
information on the product he desires to purchase. By scanning a QR code
(or enter the reference number) on the product on the packaging, the
customer can access all the product information directly queried from the
blockchain, tracing the product path from producer to the shop. This is often
referred as Farm to Fork.
20
Figure 1 Simplified blockchain integrated Supply Chain system (Source: Kamilaris, 2019)
2.4 Benefits of Blockchain traceability systems versus Traditional
ones
Application of blockchain on the food Supply Chain can improve processes
transparency and efficiency, improving trust and communication between
suppliers and businesses and improve customer trust. (Saurabh and Dey,
2021)
We have presented an integrated model of the food Supply Chain using the
blockchain, however, what justifies the usage of blockchain versus
traditional system using Internet of Things (IoT) technologies? The
blockchain technologies offer to close two gaps versus traditional
traceability systems: improve the trust in data shared by the actors of the
chain and facilitate the capture and storage of data by multiple actors.
21
First, it is important to remind that blockchain are complimentary with the
usage of IoT devices. It is not meant to replace them. IoT reduces the need
for manual recording and Blockchain offer a structure to collect and store
the data (Lin et al., 2018).
Trust is limited in existing food traceability systems (Feng et al., 2020; Zhao
et al., 2017). Trienekens et al. (2011) argues that IoT technologies alone
won’t offer guarantees of information integrity and transparency. The key
reasons are the lack of visibility in large Supply Chains (too many steps and
actors), Supply Chain opacity from governance issues (for international
Supply Chains) and stakeholder compliance (actors can be reluctant to
share their data to a central organization).
Feng et al. (2020) argue that the food safety and quality concerns can be
improved through increased traceability and transparency. Therefore,
Blockchain capacity at storing data combined with its structural design of
providing immutable records of data and transaction history offers a
solution to the trust problem.
If transparency and traceability are key to enable customer trust and
growing a business, some businesses have been slow to adopt traceability
system. According to Bateman and Bonanni (2019), traditionally Supply
Chains were originally opaque. Sharing information is often perceived as a
loss of a competitive advantage (i.e diminution of bargaining power
between suppliers)
and traditional
IoT
support traceability system
presented strong asymmetry of information. Hence, companies were
22
reticent to adopt these systems. Additionally, trust relationship between
parties was sufficient and few data was recorded or presented a high degree
of error from manual work.
(Bosona et Gebresenbet, 2013) argue that traceability usually operates
following the One step up – One step down model. In this model, companies
usual trace the origin and the destination but only at one direct level (i.e
who supplied them the resource and who did the company supplied the
resource to). Therefore, the company only has a limited view on the product
journey and data, and this information isn’t always shared to the remaining
stakeholders. Total traceability requires a connection of data inputs across
all participants, effectually removing individual traceability system for an
inter-organizational solution, at the expense of complexity and cost
alignment (if using current traceability structures). Regulation have
impacted the structure of the traceability systems, i.e EU food law in
Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 mandates all food companies to comply with
the “one step forward, one step back” approach. If no systems offer a
holistic view of the product journey, tracing the source of a precise product
will require going backward into the chain by reviewing individually each
supplier.
Total traceability of the supply necessitates a deeper integration of the
traceability and a more accessible Supply Chain (Bosona et Gebresenbet,
2013). Hence, a transparent and efficient traceability system for our food
23
product is necessary to reach the goals of greater food traceability and
transparency.
2.5 Research limitation: still a new technology
Several academic research have highlighted that although it is considered
as a promising technology, more research is need. Blockchain application in
food supply is still i) a recent topic ii) does not have enough data (mostly
pilots) iii) share different views on best practices.
In 2019, Gartner evaluated the application of blockchain to supply chain as
in peak of inflated expectations. This stage represents when a lot of hype
around a technology has been produced, supported with eagerly shared
success stories but also accompanied by scores of failures (often with less
traction). According to the Gartner hype cycle, it is unclear whether the
hype is justified or simplify following the trend that accompanied the rise of
cryptocurrencies.
24
Feng et al. (2020) argue that there are research gaps. First, studies on food
traceability systems are still incomplete and it is a topic that has not fully
been explored. Second, there are still some unknowns around how
blockchain technologies actually enable better transparency and traceability
for food Supply Chains. Third, blockchain encompass a wide range of
possibility in terms of system infrastructure and consensus, with each their
problems and it is not clear yet what blockchain setup are really beneficials.
Lastly, companies using blockchain might over-exaggerate the benefits of
blockchain to boost trust and brand reputation by using “cutting edge
technologies”.
25
Chapter 3: Blockchain traceability systems designs and
strategic value for agri-businesses
3.1 Blockchain design to support Strategic Value Creation for
Companies
Carson et al. (2018) argue that the strategic value creation behind
blockchain adoption is a reduction of the transaction complexity and cost,
an improvement of transparency and trust, and a cost reduction by reducing
intermediaries and lower effort of record collection and keeping accurate
database.
For Agri-food companies, the best design for Food Supply Chain is the use
of Private and Permissioned blockchains. This enables Private, permissioned
blockchain allows businesses both large and small to start extracting
commercial value from blockchain implementations.
Figure 2 Blockchain-architecture options (Source: McKinsey)
26
To apply blockchain benefit in companies’ strategies, firms should follow a
structured approach (Carson et al., 2018):
1. Analyze impact and feasibility of potential changes, after identifying
where value is created and what pain point in the existing processes
would need to be solved
2. Customize the design and approach to implement blockchain basis
the current market position, taking in account influence capacity for
change, ability to set standards, and regulations compliance.
Finally, Blockchain must be seen as the backbone of Supply Chain
digitalization. It offers a central IT infrastructure to capture and store data,
connecting all IoT and smart devices inputs from all the different steps.
Blockchain is a complementary database infrastructure that is added on the
top of current companies’ infrastructure and help structuring existing
systems and push for strong digitalization of the processes (Oliver Wyman,
2018).
3.2 IBM and Hyperledger Fabric blockchain solution for food
traceability and transparency
IBM is an American multinational technology corporation founded in 1911.
The company main products are the production of computer hardware and
software, and the offering of hosting and consulting services in technological
sectors. IBM renown is global and created several famous informatic
inventions such as the ATM machine or the hard disk drive.
27
IBM Blockchain in its own words “Enable trusted data exchange and
workflow beyond the boundaries with distributed ledger technology and IBM
Blockchain”. IBM is considered a leader for blockchain providing services
(CNBC, 2017). The benefits of IBM Blockchain Platform are to give
customers the flexibility, speed, and power of blockchain using an external
provider, removing the need to develop in house technical competencies
and technology. IBM competitive advantages lie in having proven benefits
from success cases and improvement in productivity and ROI.
IBM is a Blockchain-As-A-Service provider (BAAS). It offers customers the
support, tool, and setup necessary for the blockchain solutions deployment,
development and operations. IBM Blockchain Platform is the commercial
service sold by the company to customer and that leverage the technology
from Hyperledger Fabric.
What is Hyperledger Fabric?
Permissionless blockchain networks that require every peer to execute
every transaction, maintain a ledger and run a consensus are not well
designed for business application. Additionally, they cannot support truly
private transactions and confidential contracts that are necessary when
doing business with different partners (Carson et al., 2018). Hyperledger is
a project with different frameworks offering different solution based on the
problem an entity is trying to solve. One of this framework for permissioned
blockchain with a private channel support is Hyperledger Fabric.
28
It was in this context that the Hyperledger community designed Fabric, a
new blockchain platform with modular, scalable, and secure components to
be used as a foundation for business usages.
Figure 3 Hyperledger main frameworks (Source: Hyperledger)
Hyperledger Fabric is an open source and permissioned blockchain
framework project from the Linux Foundation. It was designed as a
foundation for developing applications and solutions with an open and
modular architecture, to accommodate each customer needs. It also
enables easy and fast transactions between different actors of a same
network. Currently, Hyperledger Fabric is the most used private blockchain
in supply chain adoption because of its design as a business solution
architecture.
There are two node types within the Hyperledger Fabric network. Peer
nodes and ordering nodes. Peer nodes execute and verify transactions.
Ordering nodes order transactions and the history of transaction to the
29
blockchain. This allows grouping up transaction together for increasing
efficiency and scalability.
Like all blockchains, Hyperledger Fabric records an history of transactions
in a chronological ledger. In Bitcoin, for example, the ledger holds the
record of transaction of bitcoins between different parties. In Fabric, what
is transferred is assets. In our case, it can be any food asset that is
transferred along the Supply Chain by the different actors. Hyperledger
Fabric gives businesses the ability to create their own assets and their
values, and the state changes are recorded on the ledger using chain code.
Chaincode is the software used to define an asset and the transaction
instructions needed to modify those assets. It is used as the business logic
between the exchange of asset between parties. The benefit of Fabric is to
have a central business logic that facilitating the exchanges and record
them.
Fabrics Ledger is comprised of two components. First, a Blockchain Log that
stores the immutable sequenced record of transactions in blocks. Second,
a State Database that maintains the blockchain's current state. By storing
the current state of the blockchain, this enables speed and efficiency (by
not having to calculate it by looking at all the transactions in the database)
and allows the members of the network to retrieve transactions information
from there. In example, if access is granted, it is possible to retrieve the
information linked to a specific food asset transaction between two
30
participants that happened in the past. By having all the transaction logged,
it allows to find the place of origin of the asset along the chain of exchanges,
by querying it using SQL like jobs. Hence, Hyperledger Fabric enables
traceability of the asset, its provenance, and its different steps.
Another key benefits of Hyperledger Fabric is that it provides privacy to the
transactions. Businesses do not want strategic information such as the price
deals with their suppliers to be openly accessible by their competitors.
As a permissioned blockchain, Fabric can define the participants and what
their access are. The framework provides a membership identity service
that manages user IDs and authenticates all participants on the network.
However, competitors can be in the same network. Hyperledger Fabric
solves the privacy problem by using Private Channels. These are restricted
messaging channel that can be used to provide transaction privacy and
confidentiality for specific subsets of network members. Without explicit
access to that channel, all data including transactions, member, and
channel information cannot be seen or accessed by anyone else in the
network. This allows competing business interests and any groups that
require private confidential transactions to coexist on the same permission
network. Hence, Hyperledger Fabric enables business a control on privacy
of information and flexibility to whom they want to share it.
In conclusion, Hyperledger Fabric has a flexible structure that present the
following advantages: 1. Members of a business have control over the asset
31
creation. Assets on the network are added, updated, and transferred using
chaincode. 2. It enables privacy by having private memberships for the
network access and private channel options inside the network. 3. It
increases efficiency versus public blockchain by dividing nodes into two
types: peer nodes and ordering nodes. 4. It is a ledger that store the data
of the networks current state which can be queried for tracking each assets'
providence. Thanks to these core functionality, it allows traceability,
privacy, decentralization using blockchain.
3.3 Blockchain-As-A-Service for traceability in food Supply Chain
To answer growing demand for Food Supply Chain Blockchain based
solution, IBM has developed IBM Food Trust leveraging Hyperledger Fabric
Technologies. This solution enables tracing and tracking capability to meet
demand for smart and safe food chain.
IBM Food Trust advertised benefits and applications are Supply Chain
efficiency, brand trust, food safety, sustainability, food freshness, food
fraud, and food waste. It allows every participants of the network to
generate value from participation. Customers and regulators gain access
and visibility on the product path and origin, Companies gain efficiency by
better inventory tracking and Supply Chain optimization but also benefit
from customer improved trust and regulation compliance.
32
Figure 4 Blockchain Integrated Supply Chain (Source: Deloitte)
Several examples of successful implementation of the IBM Blockchain using
Hyperledger Fabric for its customers at different steps of the food Supply
Chain:
-
Carrefour
(retailer):
The
supermarket
multinational
identified
challenges like the increasing demand from customer for more
information and how to share it. The goal was to connect consumers
with information about their food. As a solution, the retailer used IBM
Hyperledger Fabric to implement blockchain traceability. Carrefour
implemented QR codes with chicken products that consumers scan for
information as certificate of the origin and the quality. As a result,
Carrefour shared that it increased revenues and improved brand trust
and stronger relationships with consumers,
-
Nestle - Gerber Foods (processor): Gerber Foods: The goal behind
blockchain implementation was to improve traceability visibility of
33
supplier, origin, and ingredients. Nestle realized that Supply Chain
complexity was affecting negatively. As consumer rely more on the
product information it become important to be able to collect and
share this information. Nestle used IBM Food Trust to experiment new
traceability solutions. The company concluded by affirming that the
visibility into the Supply Chain was highly increased and offered
opportunities for Supply Chain optimization.
-
Ecuador’s Sustainable Shrimp Partnership (producer): Ecuador
produces high-quality, sustainably grown shrimp but is not known
from customers. To gain brand reputation of their product (shrimps),
the company partnered with IBM to share provenance and visibility of
sustainability of its practices to upstream partner (retailers and
consumers). As a result, this partnership improves the reputation of
Ecuador a premium producer of shrimps and the transparency
enabled by blockchain facilitate exportation criteria.
-
Terra Delyssa (producer): The olive oil producer company wants to
answer customer demand on authenticity for products: if product is
sustainably grown, properly harvested and ethically produced (i.e. if
its origins free of child labor). As a high-end olive oil producer, Terra
Delyssa has strong control mechanisms that follow the production of
its product from the tree to the bottle. It crushes all its olives within
24 hours of harvest and tests every production batches. By partnering
with IBM, it allowed them to share this quality focus with consumers.
As a results, it strengthens the brand positioning and image by being
34
the first in olive oil sector to “open up his books”, providing full
transparency on origin and production process to gain trust and
differentiation
Chapter 4: Case Study: Walmart usage of blockchain to
improve traceability and transparency in its Supply Chain
4.1 Walmart presentation
Founded in 1962, Walmart is a leading multinational retail corporation. The
American
companies
operates
a
chain
of
hypermarkets,
discount
department stores and grocery stores. In 2022, Walmart operates in 24
countries and has 10593 stores. Walmart is the highest revenue firm in the
world with a revenue of US$548.743 billion in 2020.
Walmart has developed a reputation for embracing digital innovation and
leverage technology and scale as competitive advantages. In 2014, the
company changed is strategy with the goal to become a technology-centric
company. This will allow the company to develop new capabilities to serve
customers in new way. In 2015, Walmart was the biggest IT spender
worldwide with $US10.5 billion expenses and saw its e-commerce sales
increase by 43%, a direct consequence of its investments in digital
technologies. In the recent years, the company developed the usage of
cutting-edge technologies: machine learning; cloud powering and IoT
integration to offer innovative retailing experience and improve customer
convenience. The company has an appetite for disruptive technologies that
are meant to represent the future. By using innovative and emerging
35
technologies, the company offers customers an innovation and immersive
hopping experience. According to Walmart, these technologies pushed for
a high digital adoption, the repeat rate (percentage of your current
customer base that has come back to shop again) topped at 95% and the
customer ratings at 4.7/5.
As an example of their commitment to improve traceability and food safety,
Walmart is also currently developing AI technologies in its store to monitor
stock management and store cleanliness. Cameras will trace misplaced
items and identify food hazard in the store (water on the floor, fallen
shelves). The technology will enable rapid intervention and optimal
conditions to guarantee food safety.
4.2 Blockchain traceability impact on Walmart Value Chain
An analysis of Walmart’s Value Chain helps understanding Walmart key
activities and identifying which of its activities would see additional value
created from an integration of the blockchain technologies for traceability.
The value chain analysis (Porter, 1985) is a tool created to analyze how a
business generates value. It investigates the primary and support activities
and processes that a company uses to produce and sell goods and products
and gain competitive advantage.
36
Figure 5 Value Chain (Source: Porter)
Primary activities
-
Inbound Logistics: One of Walmart strategies is to limit the number
of links in the Supply Chain and create strong partnerships with
suppliers. The size of the retailer also allows it to leverage large orders
and economies of scale. Sustainable and long-term partnership
support the procurement of high-quality resources. Additionally,
Supply Chain and inventory management support an optimization of
costs. A blockchain traceability system could support both. It helps
creating stronger trust and partnership between participants and
allow collecting and storing data in the blockchain ledger. Hence,
these is potential for improvement in the inbound logistic value
activity.
-
Operations: For Walmart, operation activities mean processing the
product from the supplier and distributing them to the different store
37
across the country. As the company already have internal traceability
system, adding blockchain traceability seem having a limited direct
impact. However, a benefit would be to integrate the operation data
in the blockchain to build a better end to end view and improve
transparency and trust of the Supply Chain to other participants.
-
Outbound Logistic: For Walmart, this is usually limited to getting
customer buying into stores. Using a blockchain based system could
increase customer trust and expense by providing true information on
origin and quality of a product when a customer wants to know the
product information in the shop (information directly available from
his or her phone).
-
Marketing and Sales: The strategy is based on being the best-cost
retailer. Walmart will be able to leverage improved traceability and
transparency. Providing accurate and true information on product
origin to customer will become a key competitive advantage for
Walmart. It will improve brand reputation and customer trust.
Additionally, efficiency from the blockchain technology might help
saving costs and support the Walmart strategy of a low cost retailer
by providing good quality and affordable product .
-
Service: Customer service is limited for Walmart. However, with an
improved traceability system, if a food safety incident was to happen,
the retailer would be able to investigate and react rapidly to recall the
precise contaminated goods and limit more cases.
38
Support activities:
-
Firm Infrastructure: This refers to the management, planning,
finance, accounting, and quality control. Improving traceability with
blockchain would enhance the company quality and safety control,
which are key challenges for the food industry
-
Human Resource Management: The impact of better traceability
system is very limited or nonexistent in this activity.
-
Technological Development: A blockchain traceability system would
support improved efficiency if data collection can be improved and
identifying inefficiencies
-
Procurement: Strategic partnerships are key for Walmart. By
improving trust and collaboration using blockchain, the retailer will
create value from better communication, data transfer and efficiency.
Walmart decided in 2016 to invest $25 million towards its goal of food
traceability and safety. It founded the Walmart Food Safety Center and
leveraged IBM's blockchain solution to deliver two blockchain pilots:
traceability of mango Supply Chain in the US, and transparency of freshcut pork products Supply Chain in China.
4.3 IBM-Walmart Partnership
In 2017, Frank Yiannas the vice president of food safety and health at
Walmart said, “Through collaboration, standardization, and adoption of new
39
and innovative technologies, we can effectively improve traceability and
transparency and help ensure the global food system remains safe for all.”
This speech represents the vision that Walmart had at the time on the usage
of Blockchain and technologies in general to improve traceability and
associated benefits in the Supply Chain.
Walmart believed blockchain technology had potential to enhance food
Supply Chain by using decentralized systems. To test this theory, Walmart
partnered with IBM to build a food traceability system using Fabric
Hyperledger. To test this new system, the companies launched two proofof-concept initiatives to transform digital their Supply Chain. In the first
experiment, they build a traceability system for the pork meat provenance
sold in Walmart store in China. In the second, they digitally transformed
the mango Supply Chain sold in the Walmart store in the US using. We will
explore the transformation and the result of the integration of blockchain
into these product Supply Chain in the following parts.
The challenge Walmart wanted to address was to improve the speed of the
tracing the source of the network and increase trust from greater
transparency. Indeed, when outbreak of food disease happens, the time to
trace the source of it increase economic and health consequences. More
time equals more risks of customers getting sick as well as increasing the
losses of all the farms that must discard all the products when the source
farm cannot be identified. The E-Coli outbreak mentioned in the literature
40
review is a good example with all the products being destroyed and farmer
losing their incomes. Hence, as a retailer Walmart has a strong incentive in
in improving transparency and traceability of the food Supply Chain.
Walmart also understand that Supply Chain are complex networks and that
navigating through them present a lot of challenges. The idea was that a
blockchain based traceability system would offer a centralized gathering
data platform while ensuring security of the data from the different parties.
As we have seen, traditional public permissionless blockchain are limited for
privacy and scalability. With the rise and hype of blockchain as a solution
for Supply Chain, Yiannas was initially skeptical. However, IBM who was a
strong contributor of the Hyperledger Fabric project, offered them a
partnership made sense. They had the expertise of the technology that had
a potential big impact.
Although Walmart had a unique data, the company had very limited
knowledge on the technology that would have taken years to develop.
Additionally, even if the potential of business value was high, the blockchain
applications and benefits were still in their beginning and very hypothetical,
presenting a hidden opportunity. Hence, Walmart decided to go after a
partnership for the proof of concept.
As many different blockchain technologies design and platforms exist,
Walmart also considered other options such as using Ethereum or Burrow
41
project. But Hyperledger Fabric was deemed the most suitable for the
company needs.
In addition to be able to leverage IBM expertise, another factor that was
key in the decision was the open-source and vendor neutral aspect of
Hyperledger Fabric. Since food traceability is meant to affect and involve
many different stakeholder (suppliers, regulators, customers and even
competitors), it was important that the traceability system was transparent
and adopted by all. Using an open source and neutral existing framework
helped.
4.4 Traceability of the fresh cut pork product in China
4.4.1 Pork Supply Chain in China
Walmart decided to launch a pork pilot using blockchain in China. The focus
of this initiative was enabling product traceability within a nationwide scope.
It is important to understand the Chinese pork market and its challenges to
understand why this is crucial to Walmart strategy in China and the
motivation behind adding blockchain technologies to the processes.
Walmart entered China in 1996 and has nowadays 425 stores in the
country. In 2020, Walmart made $11.43 billion in annual revenue in the
country. This makes China the 2nd biggest international market after Mexico
and Central America (with 2,700 stores and $32.6 billion). Hence, Walmart
interests are big in the country, where the fast-growing economy and
42
purchasing power of its inhabitants makes it a very attractive market.
However, similarly to many international multinationals, Walmart is not
exempt of struggles in the country. Among them, difficulty in adapting its
business model to the local market, strong competition from local and
international retailer competitors, governmental and regulation issues as
well as some food safety scandals (BI, 2018). To address these issues and
remain competitive, Walmart has partnered with JD.com (largest Chinese
e-commerce retailers) and invested heavily for changes, and the blockchain
pilot is one of these output. (JD.com, 2017)
The Chinese Pork market is very big. The country is the largest pork
producer and importer. China counts 415.9 million pigs. Not only is it the
world’s biggest pork producer, but it’s 1.4 billion population has a per-capita
pork consumption of 20.3 kg. As the country continue its development and
the middle class grow, this number is expected to grow. Hence, this
represents a big opportunity for retailers that want their share.
43
Figure 6 Global pork production by country (Statistica)
However, in recent years Chinese consumers demand for information on
product origin and processing has risen. Providing reliable information on
the pork origin is became a key necessary differentiator for retailers. This
is phenomenon happened following several large scandals in the country:
in 2015, 110 people where arrest for selling contaminated pork (BBC,
2015), 900 person were arrested in 2013 in a fake meat scandal where
20000 tons of seized fake mutton meat was in reality fox, mink or rat (The
Guardian, 2013). The lack of regulation and quality inspection often are
blockers to monitor the quality and source of the pork products. These
scandals also affected retailers and food companies: in 2015 Yum Brand
was forced to sell its KFC Chinese business branch after a series of scandals
(Reuters, 2011) and Walmart itself had a pork scandal in 2011 in China for
mislabelling its products (Reuters, 2011). Authorities in the Chongqing
44
accused Wal-Mart of mislabeling ordinary pork as organic over the past two
years, coming from poor monitoring and training of employees.
Therefore, providing proof of the product quality during the pork production
process and developing a reliable and tamper-proof traceability system
became important for the company.
4.4.2 Pork traceability pilot
To support the adoption blockchain technologies to improve the food
traceability systems, Walmart in China partnered with IBM, the e-commerce
retailer JD.com and Tsinghua University National Engineering Laboratory for
E-Commerce Technologies and created the Blockchain Food Safety Alliance
with the goal to enhance food tracking and food safety in China (Forbes,
2017). This collaboration between different actors had for goal to join forces
in order to work with the Supply Chain suppliers and government regulators
to develop changes in processes and standards towards for food Supply
Chains in China.
Walmart and JD.com would be the main retailers selling products to
customers and dealing with suppliers, Walmart being largely physical
retailer whereas JD.com an online retailer. IBM support on providing the
technologies and expertise. Tsinghua University as a consultant on
technologies adoption and on the Chinese food safety ecosystem. The
alliance goal is to democratize the technology adoption to improve the
45
Chinese Supply Chain environment, and ultimately to add more suppliers
and retailers for an overall bigger impact.
The alliance released a blockchain based pilot in 2017 to trace fresh-cut
pork products in China. Ahead of the pilot, two key activities were
performed to support the traceability system changes:
First, the
identification of the key tracking factors. A tracking factor is the key
information that needs to be recorded for the traceability system to
guarantee an aspect of a product. If a health issue arises with a product,
the tracking factor will be used to trace back the source of the issue. The
origin or the inspection data recorded are the tracking identification points.
Second, a special training was provided to employees of the different steps
of the Supply Chain, that would be involved in the pilot. The coaching
supported the changes of the processes under the roof and coached the
employees on the tools to use, such as the devices used for data collection,
scanning, reporting…
The pork journey in the Supply Chain is usually composed of farmer,
slaughterhouse, packaging and identification, transportation, distribution,
and retailers. The implemented traceability system for pork food followed
the main steps described below:
1. Farm and slaughterhouse tracking: The process begins at pens, where
each pork is given a bar code. This allows to follow its journey all the
46
way to the package pork sold in the supermarket. Pigs arrive in a
slaughterhouse. When arriving, the first step of the process is to
control the pig health and quality information and record them along
the farm origin in the inspection step. These are the first key
information collected and linked the information of the vendor ID
(geographical position, name, details etc).
2. Pork processing: The pigs are transformed from animal to several
packages. An ID tracker links the vendor ID to the different item ID
numbers. Each ID will have associated the product information, ID
and data of supplier and processors, date and time, inspection checks.
By doing so, unique data point for each package are created and link
to every step and process it goes through.
3. Departure from producer (First data entry into the blockchain): The
ID of product is linked to the transportation mean. In this pilot, this
is when the data is uploaded into the blockchain. All the information
associated with the ID are published in the ledger for traceability. In
this situation, the product's origin or source is documented. Shipping
trucks are geo-localized, monitor temperature and humidity with
sensors to guarantee the meat is safe all along its transportation.
4. Arrival at Distributer and Retailer (Second data entry into the
blockchain): At arrival in the supermarkets, GPS tracker will
automatically record the location of the receiving stores. Information
is being posted for the second time into the blockchain system. The
47
data are for each store the list of product ID, product info, and the
transportation data (carriers and time).
5. Selling and storage: In the supermarket, a consumer label is added
on the product and place in the shelves. Each label gets a unique bar
code that allows the user to access all product information previously
uploaded and stored on the blockchain.
6. Consumers: At the store or at home, the consumers can scan the
barcode on pork product and read the product information on a web
interface.
4.4.3 Pork Traceability Pilot Results
Walmart concluded that the piloting of pork traceability was successful. It
allowed uploading certificates of authenticity to the blockchain to trace the
pork information. As a benefice, it improved customer trust and offer a
reliable answer to food Supply Chain issues in China. Additionally, strong of
this success, the alliance parties decided to continue working together to
enhance traceability and transparency of food Supply Chain in the country.
Brigid McDermott, the vice president of food safety at IBM declared that
“IBM, Walmart, JD.com and Tsinghua University will work together closely,
maintaining collaboration and communication, to ensure that JD’s solution
and IBM’s solution have standards necessary for Wal-Mart and JD customers
to have a consistent user experience when accessing the food safety and
traceability information.”
48
The successful results of this pilot offered great promise in terms of
traceability of the Supply Chain and improvement of customer trust. Bridget
van Kralingen, senior vice president at IBM Industry Platforms commented
“Blockchain holds incredible promise in delivering the transparency that is
needed to help promote food safety across the whole Supply Chain. This is
a fundamental reason why IBM believes so strongly in the impact this
technology will have on business models […] the technology brings
traceability and transparency to a broader network of food Supply Chain
participants.”
In conclusion, the implementation of blockchain based traceability system
seem to offer a great traceability and transparency for fresh cut pork
produce. For retailers such as Walmart and JD, it improved the food safety
by tracing the pork origin, enhanced customer trust by accessing true
information on the product and developed stronger relationship with
regulators by enabling better visibility of the product life cycle. Additionally,
it could potentially improve Walmart efficiency by enhancing internal
visibility and communication between its suppliers to select the best and
being pro-actively fighting food fraud and reducing costs associated to
scandals and recalls.
4.5 Traceability of mango product sold in the U.S.
Whereas the pork pilot focus was mainly answering a customer need for
greater product transparency in one market, this second pilot efforts focus
49
on improving traceability systems in complex multinational Supply Chain
for the company efficiency.
4.5.1 Mango Supply Chains in the Americas
Most of the mangos sold in the United States are imported from Central and
South America: Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, Guatemala, Haiti, and Mexico. Mexico
is the largest supplier to the U.S, eighty-six percent of the mangos imported
into the U.S. are supplied by Mexico (FDA, 2016)
Mango is a fruit originating in tropical/subtropical regions appreciated
everywhere around the world because of its excellent flavor and taste.
However, as a climacteric fruit, the mango is sensitive to become easily
perishable after harvesting. Ripening process, transportation and storage
conditions condition can lead to a fast degradation of the fruit quality. The
quality loss can be translated as an economic loss along by the participant
of the Supply Chain. Moreover, the fruits are also sensitive to diseases and
to be a vehicle for health hazard. As an example, in 1998 and 2014
Salmonella outbreaks were traced back to raw mangos (Mathew et al 2018).
Therefore, monitoring the transportation and quality of the fruit is important
for customer safety. However, in global and complex Supply Chain, the
information can be hard to track and trace if a problem arises.
The common stages composing the mango Supply Chain are harvesting,
pre-treatment, packaging, storage and distribution. Each step handling the
50
mango and being a potential factor for degrading the quality of the fruit
(Mathew et al 2018). .
4.5.2 Mango Traceability Pilot
For this second pilot, Walmart also partnered with IBM to implement
blockchain technologies into the Mango Supply Chain. Frank Yiannas, the
vice president of food safety and health at Walmart wanted to see if a
blockchain integrated Supply Chain would help tracing the source of a
mango. To do so, he created a benchmark by asking his team to trace the
farm from which originate a packet of sliced mango he just bought at a
nearby Walmart. Simulating an urgent food epidemy, the team tried to
identify the source farm as fast as possible by calling and emailing
distributors, suppliers. Seven days later, they identified the origin farm.
Although fast for industry standard (During the E.Coli outbreak of 2006 took
2 weeks for the FDA to trace the origin farm), the benefits of improving the
time to trace offered great benefits such as higher response time to identify
problematic product batch and customer affected, as well as limiting
economic losses from food recalls or destructions.
For this pilot, IBM and Walmart wanted to understand what the benefits of
blockchain technologies are on fruit product quality and traceability by
improving the traceability system as well as experiment on improved crossborder logistic and accountability. Mangos are followed from their source in
Central America, different element related to the quality, process and
transportation of the fruit are recorded until their arrival in the US. The
blockchain technologies was used to capture and store the data along the
51
process, with the data being inputted by the different suppliers along the
fruit itinerary.
Different factors can be captured to analyze the quality of the fruit along
side its journey: environmental factors such as temperature, or moisture of
the container or fruit quality-related characteristics, such as appearance
(color, shape, etc.), physical damages or biological damages (insects, etc.).
These different factors can be captured using the IoT sensors/ camera or
manually to generate data entries to be then uploaded into the Blockchain.
During the pilot, the IT team from Walmart designed the application based
on Walmart and its suppliers’ processes. To begin with, they identified the
data attributes they wanted to capture and upload in the blockchain. They
started by selecting the data attributes they want to capture using the GS1
standards (barcodes and labeling authority). Then, IBM set up the
blockchain and applications allowing sending transactions and data in the
blockchain by different actors. Using Hyperledger Fabric, they wrote a chain
code (similar as smart contracts). Finally, the suppliers changed labels for
the pilot and connected the data to the blockchain through internet (with a
web-page). Although for the pilot a manual inputting of data in the ledger
seems to have been done, a functioning pilot open doors for further
automation in the future with smart tech and IoT, reducing the need for
manual work and boosting efficiency by automation.
52
The mango pilot involved 16 farms, two packing houses, three brokers,
two import warehouses, and one processing facility. At each step, they
captured 23 different lot codes and tens of thousands of sliced mangoes.
Ahead of the pilot, Walmart identified important data to capture and shared
with the participants a list of mandatory attributes (lot number, pack date,
quantity shipped, unit of measure, purchase order number, shipment
identifiers) and a list of optional attributes (carton serial numbers, pallet
number, harvest date, buyer identifier, vendor/supplier identifier).
-
Farm stage: In production, usually Mango ripe between 1 to 2 weeks
from the moment they are harvested. Mango can suffer from quality
decrease from temperature variation, bad handlings or carry diseases
from viruses or bacteria, their handling and processing need to solver
these problems. Fruit batches are being recorded with their
provenance and shared with the packing house at arrival.
-
Packing House: The fruit are washed and boxed to eliminate residues.
Each box will have a unique identity code with a bar code containing
the fruit provenance, indicating the farm, and packing house
information (name, location) as well as all the fruit process (date,
quantity, weight...)
-
Transportation: Boxes will be linked with the transporter. Carrier info
will be recorded (transport type, date, company etc). These
information will be shared when border crossing to the customs and
border crossing approval will be added to the mango information
recorded.
53
-
Processor and distributor: Mango processors and distribution centres
inspect for quality, measure shipments, check container temperature,
and evaluate both the outside and interior quality. Then, they can
provide recorded certificates to guarantee the verification and quality,
increasing accountability. Mango will then be processed and be
transformed, sliced, and put in packaging. Each package will also
have its own ID code, including the data from the previous step.
Finally, transportation of the package’s mangos will be recorded and
added to the blockchain until the store.
-
Store: At the store, final step of the product journey each mango
product will be then sold to customers. The bar code of the product
will allow to trace back it’s journey from all the data inputs that have
been capture along the mango’s journey.
Figure 7 Walmart blockchain integrated traceability system for Mangoes (Source: IBM)
4.5.3 Mango Traceability Pilot Results
The pilot results were very concluding, to trace back the source of a mango
Walmart need 2,2 seconds instead of a week. This represents a huge
54
improvements in the ability to trace back the origin of product and indicate
clear risk management benefits. Reactively identifying the source of an
issues in a very limited time bring considerable competitive advantages
such less cost from global recalls and better visibility of the on the product
data in the Supply Chain. This also shows that Walmart was efficiently able
to track data across border with several intermediaries.
Mango characteristics can be shared with many other fruits, implying that
these results and the benefits of blockchain traceability could be applicable
to a wide range of other products.
In conclusion, the Walmart pilot managed to improve traceability,
demonstrated transferability and accountability of the mango supply by
using blockchain technologies. In case of a food safety issue with its mango
product, Walmart would beneficiate from quick reaction to identify a
contamination source and limit recall costs. Moreover, using blockchain as
a ledger reinforce public trust by providing true reliable information about
the supply.
4.6 Walmart learnings and the future of blockchain in food Supply
Chain
These trial provided evidence to Walmart that blockchain technologies could
improve the transparency of its Supply Chain (pork certificates) and its
efficiency (faster tracing of its product origin). The single historical record
created allowed to build trust into the Supply Chain but also improved the
55
company existing traceability system by having a digitalized records of all
the transaction and product information.
Following the pilots results and benefits from using blockchain to enhance
traceability and transparency, Walmart has continued to expand it. Since
most of the food system are interconnected (i.e a single supplier providing
food to several retailers), Walmart understood that the competitive
advantage would we limited if only used by them. Frank Yiannas said
“(Walmart’s) CEO was reaching out to other food companies the next day,
including other retailers!” to expand the traceability to a greater pool of
players, for everyone.
Walmart pilot has been one of the earliest proof of concept, and many
companies have been following up. Following the pilot, several big players
have developed their own blockchain traceability system or leverage
Hyperledger Foundation, such as Nestle, Unilever, Carrefour and many
others. In 2020, another Mango blockchain pilot ran by Trust Provenance
(Cointelegraph, 2020) demonstrated that blockchain traceability improve
the mango distribution, reduced waste and identify
Supply Chain
inefficiencies. Employees used sensors placed in mango crates to track the
movement of the sweet fruit in addition to monitoring its temperature,
humidity, and transit time to monitor better fruit quality condition. The
association of IoT and Blockchain enhance traceability and transparency of
the food Supply Chain.
56
Today Walmart has over 25 products from 5 different suppliers being traced
using Hyperledger Fabric. The company is planning to integrate blockchain
into the Supply Chain of many more of its product in the future. As an
example, in 2018 to fight E. Coli potential outbreak, Walmart has asked its
fresh leafy greens suppliers (i.e salad or spinach) to use blockchain to trace
their products. On top of capture data of the product journey, other data
such as CO2 emissions could be added to evaluate and share the
sustainability impact of a product. This is more and more demanded by
customers. Additionally, Walmart has continued to develop the application
of Blockchain: the retailer is using the Vechain blockchain technology
integrated with the social network WeChat to directly share the product info
scanned in store (Medium, 2021). Walmart also launched a blockchain
based freight network to enhance its middle mile transportation. The
initiative will track deliveries, verify transactions, and automate payments
with carriers (Vitasek et al., 2022).
Chapter 5: Discussion and limitations
In the above-mentioned analysis, blockchain initiatives in the food Supply
Chain have brought results and tangible benefits for the retailers. Overall,
blockchain seem to be a solution to improve traceability and transparency,
as well as reducing costs and risk inherent from food Supply Chain. From
this analysis, we can conclude that blockchain technologies applied to food
57
Supply Chain seem to have the 3 following benefits to agro-business and
particularly retailers:
-
Improvement of Supply Chain visibility: by digitalizing the physical
assets journey and creating a decentralized immutable database, food
companies can track and trace any product along the Supply Chain.
The blockchain enables better data collection, and from it, improves
traceability for all stakeholders and improve food safety.
-
Improvement of trust through decentralization: by using blockchain
technologies and the immutable function, food companies create
accountability and reduce falsification of data in the database. This in
turn improve customer trust and regulators compliance by providing
an accurate source of data. Food fraud will be reduced, and customer
will accurately know where their product came from.
-
Improvement of efficiency and cost reduction by better digitalization:
Implementing blockchain to support the traceability systems bring
efficiency by improving the speed at which data is captured. This
enables better audit of the Supply Chain to improve processes and
the improved digitalization could lead to reducing costs related to
paperwork and middle-men costs.
Although the potential benefits of blockchain traceability are clearly visible
with the existing success stories, the technologies have some limitation in
their application to the food Supply Chain.
58
First, the technology is not fully understood, and its adoption will take some
time. 80% of Supply Chain blockchain initiatives will remain at a pilot stage
through 2022 (Gartner, 2020). The hype of the technologies seems to push
many company to enthusiastically consider blockchain without fully
understand its functioning or real benefits. The lack of enough research and
the limitation of pilot scale need to be addressed. Additionally, analysis on
alternative traceability system should be explored to determine if blockchain
is truly the most efficient and best cost saving solution.
Second, for a functionnal food Supply Chain using blockchain, it requires
full and honest participation from all the participants. If not all the
participants agree to participate, some information will not be capture and
defeat the purpose. This might be challenging in global and complexes food
Supply Chain with many different participants from different environment
and different regulations. Moreover, honest participation is required
because the assets are initially physical. The input needs to be correctly
added into the database. Blockchain doesn’t remove the need for auditing,
if the quality input is bad the traceability will be negatively affected. Smart
contract and smart devices can help improving the quality and reliability of
the data input; however, the data entry isn’t fully reliable if the participant
is malicious or make mistakes.
Finally, permissioned blockchain and Hyperledger benefits are criticized.
Overoptimism and hype might have overexaggerated the actual benefits.
Companies will only share the benefits from their pilots for PR and Brand
59
image
purpose,
especially
when
adopting
new
technologies.
The
blockchains design is also criticized, permissioned blockchain are sometime
called not really decentralized. Indeed, participation decides who the
participants are, and these solutions are less secure against tampering and
attacks than public platforms. However, a benefit of the blockchain solution
in the Supply Chain could be a strong enough justification to update tracing
system and stronger digitalization using the hype of “new technology”.
Conclusion
This thesis presented the many vulnerabilities and challenges of food Supply
Chains, and the limitation of current technologies to provide sustainable and
scalable solutions. To earn customer trust, greater transparency of product
information is needed. Food Supply Chain inefficiencies and costs could be
enhanced
by
better
traceability
systems.
Blockchain
technologies
characteristics seem to be a promising answer to both. New blockchain
designs have facilitated and accelerated companies’ adoption of blockchain.
Private and permissioned blockchains such as Hyperledger Fabric can
leverage the benefits of blockchain technologies such a decentralization,
immutability of data and smart contracts for agro-businesses Supply
Chains. Far from the original blockchain design to support Bitcoin, new
blockchain platforms have evolved to answer specific businesses needs:
Hyperledger Fabric technological innovations support transaction privacy
60
with the creation of Private Channels and improve the scalability of
operations and data accessibility by storing the current database in the
State Database.
Companies approach for generating value from blockchain integration
Supply Chain should focus on capturing cost and efficiency improvement
opportunities, starting with simple applications. Early adoption of the
technology in various initiatives has already showed tangible benefits. This
thesis presented the implementation of the technology by the different
actors of the food Supply Chain, and the challenges and benefits it is
solving. By capturing the products information in the blockchain database,
these immutable data entries provide reliable and trustworthy record of the
product journey. Producer, processor, and retailers can guarantee the origin
and quality of their products, adding accountability and strengthening
internal
communication
and
partnerships.
Blockchain
integration
is
facilitated by the develop of Blockchain-As-A-Service products offered by
technological companies. They simplify the integration of the technology in
the chain and share expertise.
Retailers such as Walmart have been eager to deploy and test blockchain
in their own Supply Chain. Early results presented strong evidence of the
benefits to supermarket value chain. Products certificates using blockchain
for fresh product such as pork provides transparency on their origin and
quality. As a results, customer demand on more transparency is answered.
This reduces food fraud possibilities and enhances trust. Moreover,
61
blockchain technologies support a greater integration of traceability
systems in complex Supply Chain. The ability to gather all the product
information in a central database (ledger) improves efficiency by having
greater data accessibility and reduces inefficiency costs from disintegrated
chains. Time to trace back a product improves from several days to few
seconds, ensuring greater food safety.
However, blockchain technologies are still in early stages and more time is
needed to confirm their true potential and best applications. Although the
benefits seem clear, more researches and tests will support the resolution
of technological and operational challenges that the blockchain adoption is
facing. With the ever-growing digitalization of our activities, it makes no
doubt that blockchain combined with IoT will eventually become the
backbone of greater transparent and traceable food Supply Chains.
62
Bibliography
Aung, M.M. and Chang, Y.S. (2014). Traceability in a food Supply Chain:
Safety and quality perspectives. Food Control, 2014, 39, 172–184.
Bateman A. and Bonanni L. (2019). What Supply Chain Transparency
Really Means, Harvard Business Review https://hbr.org/2019/08/whatsupply-chain-transparency-really-means
BBC (2013). Findus beef lasagne contained up to 100% horsemeat, FSA
says https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21375594
BBC (2015). Chinese police arrest 110 for selling 'contaminated pork'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-30774296
Bosona, T., et Gebresenbet, G. (2013), Food traceability as an integral
part of logistics management in food and agricultural Supply Chain, Food
Control, vol. 33, n° 1, p. 32-48.
Brant Carson, Giulio Romanelli, Patricia Walsh, and Askhat Zhumaev
(2018). Blockchain beyond the hype: What is the strategic business
value? McKinsey Article https://www.mckinsey.com/businessfunctions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/blockchain-beyond-the-hypewhat-is-the-strategic-business-value
Business Insider (2018), Photos reveal what it’s like to shop at Walmart in
China — which is shockingly different from the US and struggling to
63
compete https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-in-china-mostpopular-international-supermarket-photos-2018-4?r=US&IR=T
CDC (2006). Multistate Outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 Infections Linked to
Fresh Spinach (FINAL UPDATE) https://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/2006/spinach102006.html#:~:text=Outbreak%20Summary,%2Duremic%20syndrome%2
0(HUS)
CNBC (2017). IBM far outranks Microsoft as blockchain industry leader,
research says https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/18/ibm-far-outranksmicrosoft-as-blockchain-industry-leader-report.html
Cointelegraph (2020). 'Game changing' blockchain program tracks
mangoes in Australia https://cointelegraph.com/news/game-changingblockchain-program-tracks-mangoes-in-australia
Deloitte (2018) Beefing Up Blockchain How Blockchain can Transform the
Irish Beef Supply Chain
https://www2.deloitte.com/ie/en/pages/technology/articles/beefing-upblockchain.html
Dickinson D.L., & von Bailey D. (2002). Meat Traceability: Are U.S.
Consumers Willing to Pay for It? Journal of Agricultural and Resource
Economics, Vol. 27 Issue 2 pp. 348-364.
Feng H., Wang X., Duan Y., Zhang J., Zhang X. (2020). Applying
blockchain technology to improve agri-food traceability: A review of
64
development methods, benefits and challenges, Journal of Cleaner
Production, Volume 260, 2020, 121031, ISSN 0959-6526,
Forbes (2017). IBM & Walmart Launching Blockchain Food Safety Alliance
In China With Fortune 500's JD.com
https://www.forbes.com/sites/rogeraitken/2017/12/14/ibm-walmartlaunching-blockchain-food-safety-alliance-in-china-with-fortune-500s-jdcom/?sh=41aca2007d9c
Forbes (2022). Predictions For The Blockchain Industry In 2022
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2022/02/04/predictio
ns-for-the-blockchain-industry-in-2022/?sh=bdce86b685a3)
Gartner (2020), Gartner Says 80% of Supply Chain Blockchain Initiatives
Will Remain at a Pilot Stage Through 2022, Press Release
https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2020-01-23gartner-says-80--of-supply-chain-blockchain-initiativ
Golan, Elise & Krissoff, Barry & Kuchler, Fred & Calvin, Linda & Nelson,
Kenneth & Price, Gregory. (2004). Traceability in the U.S. Food Supply:
Economic Theory and Industry Studies. US Department of Agriculture,
Economic Research Service. 2.
Hussain, M. A., & Dawson, C. O. (2013). Economic Impact of Food Safety
Outbreaks on Food Businesses. Foods (Basel, Switzerland), 2(4), 585–
589. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods2040585
65
IBM (2017). The difference between public and private blockchains.
https://www.ibm.com/blogs/blockchain/2017/05/the-difference-betweenpublic-and-private-blockchain/
IBM (2019). Focus on FOOD SAFETY, Case Study
https://www.ibm.com/uk-en/blockchain/solutions/food-trust
IBM (2020). Meet the 2020 consumers driving change
https://www.ibm.com/thought-leadership/institute-businessvalue/report/consumer-2020
Independent (2013). Findus horse meat scandal: a company whose
reputation is changed forever
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/findus-horse-meat-scandal-acompany-whose-reputation-is-changed-forever-8486098.html
ISO
(2015).
ISO
9000
FAMILY
QUALITY
MANAGEMENT
https://www.iso.org/iso-9001-quality-management.html
Jain N. (2021). How innovative Supply Chain solutions can increase
blockchain adoption, https://www.hyperledger.org/blog/2021/07/26/howinnovative-supply-chain-solutions-can-increase-blockchain-adoption
JD.COM (2017). Walmart and JD.com Expand Strategic Cooperation, Press
Release, https://ir.jd.com/news-releases/news-release-details/walmartand-jdcom-expand-strategic-cooperation
66
Kate Vitasek, John Bayliss, Loudon Owen, and Neeraj Srivastava (2022)
How Walmart Canada Uses Blockchain to Solve Supply-Chain Challenges
https://hbr.org/2022/01/how-walmart-canada-uses-blockchain-to-solvesupply-chain-challenges
Lin J., Zhiqi Shen, Anting Zhang, and Yueting Chai. (2018). Blockchain
and IoT based Food Traceability for Smart Agriculture. In Proceedings of
the 3rd International Conference on Crowd Science and Engineering
(ICCSE'18). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA,
Article 3, 1–6.
M.P. Caro, M.S. Ali, M. Vecchio, R. Giaffreda, (2018). IoT Vertical and
Topical Summit on Agriculture -Tuscany (IoT Tuscany). Tuscany, Italy, 8-9
May 2018,
Mathew Elza N., Muyyarikkandy Muhammed S., Kuttappan Deepa,
Amalaradjou Mary Anne (2018). Attachment of Salmonella enterica on
Mangoes and Survival Under Conditions Simulating Commercial Mango
Packing House and Importer Facility, Frontiers in Microbiology, VOLUME 9,
2018
Medium (2021). Far More Than Walmart China — How VeChain Leads
Blockchain Adoption in the Food Industry Around the Globe
https://medium.com/vechain-foundation/far-more-than-walmart-chinahow-vechain-leads-blockchain-adoption-in-the-food-industry-arounda177fdf09fde
67
Norton T. (2019) Supply Chain Visibility: Traceability, Transparency, and
Mapping Explained, BSR https://www.bsr.org/en/our-insights/blogview/supply-chain-visibility-traceability-transparency-and-mapping
Oliver Wyman (2018). Supply-chain optimization: levers for rapid EBITDA,
https://www.oliverwyman.com/our-expertise/insights/2018/may/supplychain-optimization--levers-for-rapid-ebitda.html
Opara U. (2003). Traceability in agriculture and food Supply Chain: A
review of basic concepts, technological implications, and future prospects.
Food, Agric. Environ.. 1.
Porter M. E. (1985). "Competitive Advantage". 1985, Ch. 1, pp 11-15. The
Free Press. New York.
Reuters (2011). Wal-Mart's pork scandal highlights struggles in China
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-walmart-chinaidUSTRE79D1S020111014
Reuters (2016). Yum to sell stake in China business ahead of spinoff
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yum-brands-china-primaveraidUSKCN11817H
S. Saurabh, and K. Dey. (2021). Blockchain technology adoption,
architecture, and sustainable agri-food Supply Chains. Journal of cleaner
production, 284, 124731.
68
S. Wang, L. Ouyang, Y. Yuan, X. Ni, X. Han and F. -Y. Wang (2019),
"Blockchain-Enabled Smart Contracts: Architecture, Applications, and
Future Trends," in IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics:
Systems, vol. 49, no. 11, pp. 2266-2277, Nov. 2019, doi:
10.1109/TSMC.2019.2895123.
Scharff R. L. (2015). State estimates for the annual cost of foodborne
illness. Journal of food protection, 78(6), 1064–1071.
https://doi.org/10.4315/0362-028X.JFP-14-505
The Guardian (2013) China arrests 900 in fake meat scandal
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/may/03/china-arrests-fakemeat-scandal
Trienekens, J.H., Wognum, P.M., Bremmers, H., van der Vorst, J.G.A.J., &
Bloemhof, J.M. (2010). Systems for sustainability and transparency of
food Supply Chains – Current status and challenges. Advanced
Engineering Informatics. Vol. 25, pp. 65-76.
Tripoli, M., Schmidhuber, J., (2018). Emerging opportunities for the
application of blockchain in the agri-food industry. FAO and ICTSD: Rome
and Geneva. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.
WIFSS and FDA (2016).A PDF about the growing, harvesting, and postharvesting practices of the mangos commodity.
https://www.wifss.ucdavis.edu/
69
World Heath Organization (2015). WHO’s first ever global estimates of
foodborne diseases find children under 5 account for almost one third of
deaths https://www.who.int/news/item/03-12-2015-who-s-first-everglobal-estimates-of-foodborne-diseases-find-children-under-5-accountfor-almost-one-third-of-deaths
Xu J., Guo S., Xie D., Yan Y., (2020). Blockchain: A new safeguard for
agri-foods, Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture, Volume 4, 2020, Pages
153-161, ISSN 2589-7217,
Zhang Y. and Ting Z. (2017). A Review of Food Traceability in Food Supply
Chain, Proceedings of the International MultiConference of Engineers and
Computer Scientists 2017 Vol II, IMECS 2017
Zhao G., Shaofeng Liu, Carmen Lopez, Haiyan Lu, Sebastian Elgueta,
Huilan Chen, Biljana Mileva Boshkoska, (2019). Blockchain technology in
agri-food value chain management: A synthesis of applications, challenges
and future research directions, Computers in Industry, Volume 109, 2019,
Pages 83-99, ISSN 0166-3615,
Zhao, J.; Liang, X.; Shetty, S.; Liu, J.; Li, D (2017). Integrating
blockchain for data sharing and collaboration in mobile healthcare
applications. In Proceedings of the 2017 IEEE 28th Annual International
Symposium on Personal, Indoor, and Mobile Radio Communications
(PIMRC), Montreal, QC, Canada, 8–13 October 2017; pp. 1–5.
70
71