China has been rocked by food scandals in the recent years, including fake food and tainted food. Major players in the retail game are looking for ways to combat this. Blockchain is the answer for 2 big companies in China and many more globally. For this reason companies are experimenting with using blockchain to create transparency in their supply chains. This would enable customers to be able to track their food from farm to table.
Chinese companies are looking at solutions to solve the nations food fear problem they are currently experiencing. Food fraud costs the global food industry approximately $40 billion a year. This is according to a 2016 report by PwC. However Chinese consumers are particularly fearful about food safety. Additionally they keep being rocked by fake food scandals, with one elaborate operation found using industrial salt in over 50 products. In 2008 milk powder tainted with Melamine killed 6 infants. Last year authorities found 35 restaurants that were selling food seasoned with opium poppies. Furthermore a meat supplier was found selling expired meat to Mcdonald's and KFC in 2014. These are just a few examples of the massive problem the food industry is having in China at the moment. There has also been reports of fake eggs, rice, soy sauce and spice mixes.
With scandals spreading like wildfire on popular Wechat and Weibo, companies are desperate to come up with a solution.
Blockchain to the rescue....
Alibaba is the nations top online shopping company that hope to use blockchain in the fight against fake food. Over the years they have been criticised as they struggle to eliminate fake items sold by its third party vendors. Tech in Asia reported in June that Jack Ma’s US$270 billion ecommerce firm announced it’s going to begin experimenting with blockchain. They will be using the technology to track genuine food products through the supply chain. Australia and New Zealand will be the first two countries where they look at utilising the technology.
Another company that will be using blockchain to verify supply chains is Zhongan Technology. A recent article on Coindesk explained that Zhongan Technology will be using a blockchain-based system that aims to track the whole process of the chicken farming. The blockchain application will give each chicken an identity that can trace and record the information of its birth. Also the farms on which it was raised and the processing factories and logistic suppliers on its way to market.
The rise of blockchain in supply chains....
In a recent post that I published, I examined Arkansas based Grassroots Farming Cooperative trials using blockchain in order to have total transparency in their supply chain. It is clear that as blockchain is being used more widely outside of the FinTech sector that the amazing uses for this technology will continue to expand. Finally with more agricultural companies adapting this technology into their supply chain, it can only be good news for consumers around the world