One of the biggest impetus for the use cases above is the emergence of consumer protection laws imposed on producers and suppliers. Eventually, domestic producers and exporters seeking to enter key destination markets may have no choice but to fulfil the prerequisite of compliance, something which our blockchain traceability solution readily solves. Flowing from this, government agencies aimed at promoting their national primary industries such as agriculture and manufacturing are also using a top-down approach to enforce blockchain usage for food safety and traceability.
Not too long ago, a famous baby formula and dairy products brand was allegedly contaminated with deadly botulism bacteria and made its way into major export markets. It caused huge consumer uproar, which led to widespread product recall across several countries and a temporary ban. It forced the CEO to publicly apologise, incur a hefty fine, and the country’s government agency to step in for damage control worldwide. Test results showed that the contamination may have happened along the supply chain with third party manufacturers.
Even though this affected only one company, the national industry suffered a reputational blow as this was the world’s largest dairy exporter. Global consumer confidence over the food quality of this nation’s other non-related exports also took a hit.
Australia
Australia’s Minister for Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management announced the Blockchain and Traceability Framework for Australian Dairy Farmers (ADF) in 2020, to develop a real time dairy payment system and supply chain information sharing capacity using blockchain technology.
As stated on its government website: “Blockchain can assist in providing a shared view of truth about business transactions”. It will give Australian farmers a competitive edge, because “the transparency and security of shared information using blockchain technology will demonstrate provenance and reduce costs to compete more aggressively in local and global markets”.
People’s Republic of China
The PRC e-Commerce Law officially took effect on 1 January 2019, to protect the legal interests of all parties involved in e-commerce transactions, maintain market order, prohibit false advertising, and weed out knock-offs and counterfeit merchandising.
This is important because local exporters to the giant China market rely on e-commerce platforms (such as Taobao, Alibaba, JD) to sell their wares, and are held to this Law as “operators” (or vendors) on these platforms. The platform and vendor are jointly and severally liable for any infringement. Article 38 states that a platform that “knows or should have known” that a vendor has been offering goods or services which infringe safety requirements, and platforms will incur liability for damages caused to consumers if they fail to check the qualifications of the vendor “to fulfil the obligation to safeguard safety of consumers”.
The vendor which fails or lacks the qualification and quality tools may find itself shut out entirely of these platforms, which provide the much-needed access to warehouse, wholesale, intermediate and retail distribution channels.
United States
Similar to the above, the US Shop Safe Act 2021, amended from the existing Trademark Act 1946, seeks accountability and contributory liability in e-commerce transactions. The platforms (such as Amazon, Walmart Marketplace, eBay) have a duty to vet through their vendors and verify their vital information against governmental and reliable sources, for these vendors to verify the authenticity of its products, and to ensure that consumers have access to relevant information at the time of purchase.
Note: This Act is still in passage at the time of publication.
Halal Certification Boards
No doubt, there will be huge implications for the global Halal segment as well. ‘Halal’ refers to the sourcing and preparation of foods based on Islamic requirements which are independently certified and monitored by the religious boards of respective countries.
This extends beyond Islamic markets because the source country may not be Islamic. For instance, Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of Halal meat, with Saudi Arabia and UAE among its biggest buyers, and has put in place a blockchain traceability system from farm-to-shipment in partnership with the Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce.
As Halal certification becomes increasingly standardised around the world by the different boards, digitised to replace a conventionally manual paper-based process, and envelops the full value chain for Halal integrity as seen in markets like Malaysia, Indonesia and Turkey, the opportunities for this tech use case are remarkable indeed.
