Status quo

A recent notable project that cannot be overviewed is the collaboration between Walmart, JD.com, IBM and Tsinghua University in a Blockchain Food Safety Alliance to enhance food tracking, traceability and safety in China announced in 2017 (Slocum, Gartner & Lui 2017; Prisco 2017). Investigating the application of Distributed Ledger to provide real-time traceability throughout the blockchain, four companies have created a standard-based method of collecting data about the origin and authenticity of food. This will, therefore, strengthen accountability and provide food stakeholders with clearer insight and transparency into food-handling process from farm to end-use consumer, which has traditionally been a burden in the whole supply chain. (Slocum et al. 2017.)

Specifically, IBM takes charge of developing IBM Blockchain Platform and providing expertise, while Tsinghua University has their National Engineering Laboratory for E-Commerce Technologies counsel technical features and conduct in-depth research into food safety. In terms of Walmart, it is regarded as a world leader in global food safety working closely with suppliers, regulators, industry partners and research community, as well as investing aggressively in food safety research through the Walmart Food Safety and Collaboration Center. In China, Walmart also collaborates with JD.com, one of China's largest retailers to be able to leverage JD's expertise in the adoption of not only blockchain but also artificial intelligence (AI), big data and other disruptive technologies.

(Slocum et al. 2017; Aitken 2017a; Churchill 2018.)

The first proof of concept is illustrated by the test of the pork supply chain in China, tracking it from farm to table (Craik 2017). They uplifted almost every piece of information related to the pork, such as processing, dispatching and temperature, to the blockchain so that anyone could witness all steps. Thereafter the pock-tracking project, IBM-Walmart continued with a completely different product, mangoes imported from South Africa. In this pilot, all supplier certificates were uploaded to the blockchain. Since it is challenging for retailers to keep the certificates up to date and audited, more than 50 people were employed to check certificates. Regarding the result, Walmart confirmed that they could simply display all the data associated with the movement of mangoes to the shelf.

(Churchill 2018.) Yet success is far from assured, according to Popper and Lohr (2017).

Not only does IBM cooperate with Walmart, the company also has a group of more than 10 firms, including Unilever, Nestlé and Tyson Foods, joining to help develop its corporate

blockchain platform in food supply chain (Churchill 2017). The expectation is that the technology improves visibility in order to, for example, quickly identify contamination source in case of incidents. Through the latest IBM initiative, all participants can gain ''permissioned access'' to trusted data about the origin and state of food for transactions (Aitken 2017b.)

The consortium development by IBM blockchain still came after the introduction of Ambrosus, which is claimed to be the world's first 'trusted' blockchain-based system for food supply chain. The ecosystem is the combination of blockchain technology and other innovative technologies such as high-tech sensors and smart contracts. The fathers of Ambrosus, Swiss-based CEO Angel Versetti and CTO Dr Stefan Meyer, touted the solution as being able to ''reliably record the entire history of food from farm to fork''. The project's effort won the endorsement of EIT Food and Swiss Quality and Safety

Association. (Aitken 2017b.)

Another blockchain-based panacea for food supply chain is conducted by Provenance to track a tuna fish caught in Maluku, Indonesia from landing to factory. Supported by mobile and smarts tag, their blockchain is expected to offer the opportunity to share the truth between all stakeholders, from fishermen, factories, certifiers to consumers. This project has open the door to a new digital ecosystem for traceability with a united language and public infrastructure. (Provenance 2016.)

4.4 Summary

Supported by the verdicts given in Chapter 2 and 3, this chapter fully resolves the first research sub-question SQ1: What are the potential effects of blockchain on food retail supply chain?

On the whole, most of the impacts that blockchain is forecasted to exert on the food retail supply chain are positive. Among the three major flows of a typical supply chain, the information flow is expected to be affected most immensely with the elimination of third-party data storing organizations, the prevention of data-related corrupting activities and the augmentation of supply chain visibility. The blockchain-enabled physical flow of food will potentially move at a faster pace thanks to smart contract, and volume of food waste will decrease. Regarding the financial flow, it is predicted that the engagement of

intermediate financial parties will be cut off to a certain extent.

In addition to the common effects that are seen throughout the entire supply chain, the authors also attempted to analyze the individual impacts of blockchain on each supply chain actor. For the farmers, blockchain would benefit them by easing the management of

input materials supply. However, in order to adapt to the ecosystem, the agriculture sector would have to invest more on the information technology infrastructure to facilitate the installment of blockchain, which is costly and requires sufficient human resources.

Furthermore, blockchain would also pressure this sector to improve the compliance with policies and regulations in a stricter manner. The processing sector is predicted to be influenced by blockchain in a similar way with the agriculture sector. Apart from that, the food fraud issue, which happens the most frequently in this sector compared to the others, is expected to be averted. For the distribution sector, blockchain would assist in identifying faulty products as well as allow retailers to attract more customers by improving the company image with strengthened social responsibility. Nonetheless, the costs of

adopting this technology would be a headache for small players in the food retail industry.

Lastly, with blockchain, the consumer sector would be able to do grocery shopping much more comfortably thanks to the ensured quality of products as well as the trustable information on the product label.