STiR coffee and tea magazine

STiR coffee and tea 27 Consumer Connecting the Food Supply System Agri Chem Grower Importer Wholesaler Manufacturer Source: FoodLogiQ (www.foodlogiq.com) Maximize ROI with Supply Chain Traceability Distribution & Logistics Foodservice Retail Consumer Packaged Goods Physical commodity Dala/information Ten leading food companies, including Nestlé SA, Unilever, Dole, Kroger Co., and Walmart, have joined the IBM Food Trust to track food from farm to the grocery aisle, as detailed in a report by FoodLogiQ. The initiative envisions a level of transparency that will reveal the exact whereabouts and cause of food illness outbreaks in a matter of minutes – not days or weeks. A distributed blockchain ledger that tracks the status of every food product in real-time lies at the heart of the system, according to FoodLogiQ. Frank Yiannas, the Walmart v.p. who oversees food safety, calls it "the equivalent of FedEx tracking for food." In a report published by the FoodNavigator, Yiannis said the process of moving food from the farm to table is not actually linear. "I try not to use the words food chain and in- stead use food system, because we know that when you do these trace-backs, they are not straight back," Yiannis told attendees at the Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo, in Wash- ington, DC. The s ystem is "chaotic and decentralized with producers regularly switching suppliers, and intermediaries, such as processors, constantly changing – making it difficult for one central p layer – such as Walmart – to digitally untangle and keep track of all the relationships in real time," said Yiannas in the FoodNavigator report. He views the adoption of blockchain ledgers as a mega trend that mirrors the decentral- ized and distributed multi-tasking nodes of today's food system, which has replaced sequen- tial transactions by specialized companies. In practical terms a country like Sri Lanka, which has vigorously debated recommenda- tions by tea exporters to import tea from other origins for blending, could rely on blockchain ledgers to protect the reputation of its Ceylon Tea brand. Plantation companies and smallholders fear that blending tea imported from Africa and India will dilute their national brand. Exporters meanwhile lament the loss of market share and lack of competitiveness due to higher prices and are seeking free trade zones offshore. "With the closed- door economic regime prevailing for the tea export industry due to plantation sector fears of a fall in prices at the Colombo auctions, many tea exporters have looked at the option of relocating at least a part of their ex- port business to liberal and business-friendly countries like UAE, Abu Dhabi, Oman, and India," HVA Foods chairman Rohan Fernando told the Daily Mirror in Colombo. Currently 80% of Sri Lankan tea is sold in bulk, with 40% blended offshore. - Dan Bolton Links are now Nodes

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