The Guardian: Using blockchain technology to improve labor conditions and supply chain management in the fishing industry

Rage Review : British blockchain startup Provenance is committed to supply chain management solutions to ensure the transparency and safety of food sources. Fisheries are also an industry rife with illegal activities and slavery. Therefore, industry participants hope to use blockchain technology to solve these long-standing problems and completely eradicate this drawback. Ensure the sustainable development of fisheries, the safety of fish products, and the legal rights of workers. Currently, Provenance is still the most well-known company in the field of food supply chain management and has cooperated with many companies.

Translation: Annie_Xu

A new digital technology is being used to track seafood from catch to market in an effort to stop copyright infringement and illegal fishing.

This new technology is blockchain. This technology, which was first applied to Bitcoin, is expected to transform the financial industry, property rights field, and food industry, replacing traditional contracts, paperwork, and verification methods.

Blockchain is a digital ledger or information record that is open to everyone. The blockchain here can mark the source of fish, so that anyone can know where the fish was caught, where it was processed, and other important information. Blockchain itself cannot prevent illegal fishing, but it allows everyone to see the entire supply chain.

The seafood industry has long been rife with human rights violations and illegal fishing, and practitioners hope that a blockchain pilot project by British company Provenance can help retailers, manufacturers and restaurants prove the origin of these fish products.

Steve Trent

Steve Trent, Executive Director of the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), said:

"Building a mechanism to increase transparency across the entire fish supply chain is key to eliminating human rights violations and illegal fishing that are rampant throughout the industry and ensuring the sustainability of fisheries."

Currently, the sale and purchase of seafood is tracked using paper records and food labels. Blockchain allows local fishermen to record the fishing process on the blockchain through mobile phone information. This record is then sent to suppliers, and then records the subsequent processing procedures, such as packaging.

End users and consumers can use their mobile phones to check the origin of fish products and the entire supply chain in stores and restaurants, replacing existing text communications and labels.

This technology has also attracted the attention of food companies. Co-op Food has begun working with Provenance to apply blockchain to new fresh food project tests, which is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Jessi Baker, founder of Provenance, said that blockchain will increase the cost of finished food products, so it may first be applied to high-quality fish products, or even red wine and olive oil. The premise of adopting this technology for canned and processed fish products is to reduce costs.

“We urgently need a solution, we want to support fish that are caught responsibly, verify this information in the blockchain, and promote a slavery-free fishery market. This pilot shows that blockchain can be used to achieve transparency in complex global supply chains.”

Thai Union, the world's largest tuna exporter, has also welcomed the project after facing criticism over the sustainability of its fisheries. In July, Tesco stopped buying John West brand tuna in the hope that the company could prove it was using sustainable sources.

Dr Darian McBain

Dr Darian McBain, Head of Sustainability at Thai Union, said:

“Traceability can prove that fish products are caught legally and responsibly, and that labor conditions throughout the supply chain are safe; therefore, it is indispensable for gaining consumer confidence in the source of fish.”

“The next challenge is to increase scalability so that the traceability system can work across borders, verify authorities, and educate consumers so that they value traceability, legality, sustainability, and good labor treatment of fish stocks.”

Trent warned that blockchain technology alone cannot stop illegal activity in the fishing industry. “Other actions and mechanisms must be understood and supported to combat illegal activity, including providing effective enforcement and strong, fair, transparent, rigorous courts.”