As consumers, regulators, and other stakeholders demand to know the origin of products on the market, producers, distributors, and retailers struggle to provide it. In today’s global supply chain, goods pass through numerous intermediaries from origin to consumer, leaving data spread across multiple systems in different formats. Piecing together the full product journey to ascertain authenticity and safety can be difficult, if not altogether impossible. Sure, there are digital track-and-trace systems in place, but this information, too, is centrally held by a single stakeholder—and it can be costly to implement and maintain.
Blockchain
technology offers a solution to product tracing’s complexities by storing each
leg of the journey on an immutable distributed ledger. With appropriate
permissions in place, real-time visibility becomes systemic, enabling not only
live track-and-trace but also numerous opportunities for increased efficiency.
Product
visibility that supports the circular economy
According
to a recent report by the UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies, early
projects are already yielding results. For example, the global olive oil
market, and extra virgin olive oil (EVVO) in particular, is plagued with
deceptions and outright fraud, including shipping products from one country to
another to increase its value, or blending cheaper oils to cut costs. Italian
olive oil producer Certified Origins uses blockchain to substantiate its product’s
provenance. The olive oil is fully traceable back to its point of origin via a
customer app that obtains the product journey information from the blockchain.
A
significant set of blockchain use cases centers around the “circular economy.”
Rather than using raw materials to make products, which are then consumed and
thrown away, circular economic models strive to reduce waste, reuse products
and recycle materials. Major retailers, including Adidas, Neiman Marcus,
Nordstrom, and IKEA, have launched circular-economy initiatives. This approach
has been driven in part by consumer demand for sustainable and ethically
sourced products that has made supply-chain visibility an imperative for
maintaining brand value.
We
hope you have found this article informative and interesting. For more
information or queries contact us to know more about this technology.
Comments
Post a Comment